The city’s plan to replace the SeaSk8 skatepark—formerly
located just east of Seattle Center—is now facing another crisis,
as unforeseen construction costs have raised the price of the project
by nearly a million dollars. Once again, poor planning, powerful
lobbies, and a lack of oversight from the parks committee have screwed
local skatepark advocates.
In January 2007, bulldozers demolished SeaSk8 to make room for the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s new parking garage. The city made
plans to relocate the skatepark—organizing the parks department’s
Skate Park Advisory Committee (SPAC), a citizen panel set up to
identify sites for new skateparks in the city—and pledged to
build skaters a new park near the Center before construction of the
parking garage was finished.
Now, the Gates Foundation’s garage is on track to be finished by
July, while SeaSk8 continues to be shuffled around.
In October, months after plans to relocate SeaSk8 to Elliott Avenue
or the Center’s Du Pen fountain site fell through, the city asked the
Center to take a look at replacing Pavilions A and B—the large
concrete structures that sit just south of KeyArena—with a
skatepark. While the pavilion site wasn’t SPAC members’ first
choice—they wanted the park to be relocated to Broad Street at
the south end of the Center—they said they’d make it work and
SPAC started looking for ways to incorporate green space and family
areas into
the new SeaSk8. Things seemed to be falling into place
for the oft-relocated skatepark—but last week, SPAC was
blindsided with a report from the Center, which put the costs
for
demolishing the pavilions at a staggering $4.6 million.
The original plan was for both sites to be demolished and replaced
with 15,000 square feet of skatepark and green space. But, it turns
out, Pavilion B sits right on top of
the ducts that run in and out
of KeyArena’s kitchen. Replacing and rerouting the ducts would more
than double the estimated cost of the skatepark so, of course, SPAC was
notified that it would be getting a third less space. Rather than duke
it out with the Center and move the skatepark again, the city
council—already growing weary of dealing with SeaSk8—has
decided to move forward with the site.
“I think everybody’s really
ready to be done with this,” says Council Member Richard Conlin, a
member of the parks committee. “It’s been a frustrating experience.”
Even the scaled-back skatepark will require an additional injection of
$800,000.
By all accounts, no one saw the cost increase coming. “That site was
in the mix for months,” says SPAC chair Ryan Barth. “It seems bizarre
to think no one would have done some general homework to see the
implications of building a site there.” SPAC member Matthew Lee
Johnston says that while the council has been politically supportive of
new skateparks, he notes that skateboarders actually have fewer parks
than they did a year ago. “I feel great about the support, but it
doesn’t get me closer to having more skateparks,” Johnston says. “I’m a
skateboarder, I can’t skate on policy.”
The person who should have been asking those questions is Council
Member David Della, who chairs the council’s parks committee. As
The Stranger goes to print, Della is up for reelection. On
Della’s watch, SeaSk8 was demolished without a solid replacement plan
in place. The first planned site—on Elliott Avenue—fell
apart due to cost issues; community outcry killed Della’s plan to
replace Seattle Center’s Du Pen fountain with a skatepark; Della was at
the wheel when Seattle Center heavies like the Space Needle and the
Experience Music Project muscled SeaSk8 out of a site on Broad Street,
which SPAC had identified as the optimal location for a new park; and
Della’s parks committee failed to foresee financial problems with the
current pavilion site. Della would not talk to The Stranger.
SPAC is holding a meeting to discuss the future of SeaSk8 on Thurs,
Nov 15, at 6:30 p.m. in Conference Room A at the Seattle Center
House.
