Avon may one day see skate park, if Town Council can agree on location
Two electeds are against putting proposed park in the southeast corner of Nottingham Park
Town of Avon/Courtesy photo
The potential location for the proposed skate park in Avon proved once again contentious at the most recent Avon Town Council meeting. In previous council meetings, the old fire station, at 351 Benchmark Road, was considered and rejected as a location for the skate park.
The plan as of the council meeting on Tuesday, June 27, placed the park in the southeast corner of Harry A. Nottingham Park, bordering Lake Street. When the council last discussed the park, at its April 25 meeting, a majority vote of 5-2 approved moving forward with this site, but included a plan to revisit the topic.
To move to the next step of the design process, the project, which is being supported by the Education Foundation of Eagle County, needed a letter of agreement from the Avon Town Council. The letter of agreement “would allow EFEC to get the next round of grant work for conceptual design work, so it’s to take one more step in the design process, to release those funds, and pursue the next level of design,” said Matt Pielsticker, the planning director for the town of Avon.
The new grant funding would be used to hire a skate park designer to create a conceptual plan for the skate park with skate features, skate plazas and two public restroom buildings. Once the conceptual designs are ready, in an estimated two to three months, according to Pielsticker, they would return to the Avon Planning and Zoning Commission for further evaluation. At the suggestion of Council member Chico Thuon, the Planning and Zoning Commission and Avon Town Council will hold a joint work session to evaluate these plans.
“We think this project is equitable, it adds diversity to your park, and the programming in your park,” said Amy Lewis, a representative of the Education Foundation of Eagle County. “It provides a free recreational high-use space, and we’re really excited to see the combination of what can happen with the case committee, and what the skate park can bring, and how this can all work together as this community space, which is much greater than just a skate park. It has so much more versatility to it.”
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Mayor Pro Tem Tamra Underwood, addressing Lewis, said, “I just want to be clear that we all know, and I want to be sure that your organization understands, that this is all subject to Planning and Zoning (Commission) approval, and Council approval, this joint work session, more public input, because believe it or not, I’m hearing quite a bit that people don’t like this use on that place. I find that surprising.”
Though dissenting opinions to the location of the proposed skate park may have come as unexpected for Underwood, they were not for Council members Lindsay Hardy and Ruth Stanley, who spoke in strong opposition to placing the skate park in the southeast corner of Nottingham Park.
“I don’t think this is the appropriate location for the skate park,” Hardy said. “While I am in favor of it existing within our town limits, I think by the tennis courts is a more appropriate place.”
Hardy went on to express concerns about the use value of the skate park, questioning whether it was located properly to serve the greatest number of potential users, and invoke previous town decisions against putting a skate park in Nottingham Park due to fear of over-programming the park. Hardy also mentioned the potential danger of locating the skate park so close to the parking lot.
“I just don’t think that property is the right property, and if we want to do it right, I think we should do it in the right location. I’m not convinced by this property,” Hardy said.
Stanley agreed with Hardy. “I don’t feel that this is the best location to be used for a skate park,” she said. “I hate to have this happen, and then we say no in the long run.”
Avon Mayor Amy Phillips disagreed with Hardy and Stanley. She was a strong proponent of moving forward with the letter of agreement and placing the park in the proposed location. “I want to see what this plaza looks like with some of the multi-use and some of the art elements, because it could be really, really, really interesting and fantastic,” she said.
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In response to Hardy and Stanley’s hesitation, Council member Rich Carroll asked Lewis whether it would affect the funding to move the site after being approved by the Colorado Health Fund.
“They are in support of this project in the town of Avon. They know that we have looked at a minimum of three sites. If we’re adding another site to look at in this, I don’t anticipate them pulling away from this. They believe that our town needs this,” Lewis said.
However, Hardy was unconvinced that if the plan was permitted to move forward with the proposed location still attached, it would not become the guaranteed location for the skate park. “It gets that ball rolling that says this is the chosen location because of this letter of agreement,” Hardy said.
The solution was found in an amendment to the letter of agreement, as proposed by Carroll.
“I’m going to move that we approve the letter of agreement as is in the memo, with the following changes: On the second ‘whereas,’ we would add the words, ‘or other such location, as determined appropriate by the town,'” Carroll said. He additionally added other amendments, as discussed in the council meeting, that were less controversial within the council than the proposed skate park’s location.
Due to the amendment, the motion was passed unanimously by all six council members in attendance.
