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A Skate Park Development Process in Pennsylvania Lancaster County LANCASTER COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PARKS & RECREATION Skate Park Development Process NOTE: This summary, provided to interested municipalities, is designed to help persons understand Lancaster County’s experience in designing and building a skate park in south-central Pennsylvania. It includes our successes, obstacles, victories, and compromises. Much of this information was compiled from an application for partial state funding in late 1998. This summary chronicles the citizen-input process, site characteristics, and other information required as part of the state’s Keystone Grant application process. A complete copy of that grant application, with all Appendices and plans referenced in this summary, is available for a copying/reproduction fee of $30.00. Checks should be made payable to "Lancaster County Parks." We regret that a fee must be charged; however, the volume of inquiries for this information has necessitated a policy of some cost-sharing. Thank you for your understanding. Persons may obtain some additional information, including additional copies of this narrative and selected graphics (site plan) by visiting the County’s web site and the Parks and Recreation Department’s sub-page on it. The idea for developing this skate park facility began as, and continues to be, a partnership of varying public and private interests. In December of 1997, the Chief of Police for Lancaster City and the County’s Parks and Recreation Director assembled an Ad Hoc Committee to look at the problem. The Committee consisted of the individuals above, the executive director of the Lancaster (City) Recreation Commission, the director of Lancaster (City) Parks Department, the County Parks and Recreation Department’s park design specialist (a registered landscape architect) and recreation coordinator, and a member of the City Police Department’s Juvenile Division. By early February of 1998, the group grew in size to include three skate shop owners, a registered landscape architect from the private sector, and concerned City and County residents, several under the age of 21. The committee received early support from the County’s Board of Commissioners, including Chairman Paul Thibault, whose late son was an avid skateboarder. The importance of this support, by a traditionally-conservative governing body in a conservative County, cannot be over-emphasized. By March, a decision was reached to begin a design for a skate park facility within Central Park, a 544-acre, regional County park in the center part of the County. A public hearing was held on the evening of March 12, 1998 to gauge citizen input. A member of the committee, a skateboard shop owner and a graphic artist, volunteered to design a postcard advertising the event. This was distributed to interested parties by mail and at area skate shops. [See postcard and meeting agenda from April 18, 1998 in Appendix F.1]. Twenty-seven persons attended the meeting, including concerned parents, township officials, skateboarders, and the press. The public response was overwhelmingly positive; the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal reported favorably on the meeting the next day, and ran an editorial praising the County’s efforts two days later [See March 13 and 14, 1998 articles, in Appendix F.2]. In order to get a sense of public desires for a skate park, the County and the Ad Hoc Committee coordinated a Design Workshop on Saturday, April 18, 1998. The purpose of the workshop was the following: 1. Gain a better understanding of what local skateboarders wanted, and to come up with a single design incorporating the best elements of the three teams’ work for the new County facility; 2. Educate the public about the potential for successful skate parks by showing slides, videos, and architect’s plans from other areas of the country; 3. Build better relations between government officials (including City police) and skateboarders, and to further solicit community and private business support for the project. Three design teams were recruited to work on the design of a skate park. Each team was organized with the intent of having balanced representation consisting of design professionals (landscape architects, architects, engineers, or construction experts), skateboarders or skate shop owners, who know the sports of skate boarding and inline skating intimately; and public officials, including police and recreation and park professionals from City, County, or local government. [A listing of the design teams’ participants, and a promotional news article written by a teenager and featured on the cover of "Freestyle", a tabloid insert to the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, are enclosed in Appendix F.3]. The design professionals donated their services to the County for this Saturday design charette free-of-charge. The teams were sent information in advance, including scaled maps, articles on skate park design, and related plan drawings and construction details from other skateboard parks around the country. The teams met on April 18, worked on designs (including site plans, presentation graphics, and clay models) from 9 AM to 2 PM, then presented their findings to the entire group, which at that point had grown to approximately 50 persons, including numerous teens and young adults and their parents who anxiously awaited the outcome of the workshop. From the workshop, three designs emerged with similarities as well as distinct differences. [These design proceedings, photographs of clay models, and a resulting Sunday News newspaper article are enclosed in Appendix F.4]. In the summer of 1998, the County received quotations from two design professionals willing to take the workshop proceedings to the next level. A contract was awarded to David Lynch & Associates, an architectural/land development firm which had two participants in the April 18 workshop to develop detailed plans and construction details. They have had approximately a half-dozen meetings with the County’s park design specialist and director, and have developed the site plans and some details on CAD for detailed estimating by Wohlsen Construction Company. It is clear that this work is far in excess of the $1,000 fee charged by David Lynch & Associates; their estimate of the value of this work was approximately $6,500. As for the cost-estimating work performed by an estimator for Wohlsen Construction Company, these services — which included detailed estimates of Phases I and II of this skate park, and computer analysis of cut-and-fill requirements for the ADA-accessible pathways and free-form bowls — are valued at approximately $2,300 [See Appendix F.6]. Concurrent with this design process, the County’s Parks and Recreation Department held a special event to raise funds for the design. Department staff, working with a summer intern, developed a Wing Feast program for Saturday, August 22. This event, held in Central Park’s Kiwanis Area from 1 to 5:30 PM , involved barbequed chicken wing sampling and a contest among eight area restaurants; three bands performing various types of teen-oriented music; a market of vendors selling skateboard, clothing and accessory items; and a review of the plans from the April 18 design workshop. Approximately 450 persons attended, and $700 in net proceeds were raised toward the skate park design. [More information, including a promotional flyer, news article, and event photographs from this program may be found in Appendix F.5]. The amount raised was not as much as hoped for; however, it continued to build momentum and public support for the project, and gave area teens a sense that County government was being responsive to their concerns. The cost estimate for this skate park was assembled by the park design specialist for the County (a registered landscape architect), in concert with a construction estimator from Wohlsen Construction Company, Lancaster. The latter provided their estimating services free-of-charge. The detailed Estimate of Probable Cost is enclosed in Appendix ‘G’. The County opted to apply for state funding of fifty percent of this project, through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Keystone Recreation, Park, and Conservation Fund (or "Keystone grant") Program. The state’s own Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (PA-DCNR), Bureau of Recreation and Conservation had indicated a need for a model project, since there are presently no large, publicly-owned skate parks of this size in Pennsylvania. In spring of 1998, PA-DCNR awarded the County fifty percent of funds for the Phase I part of the project. This represented $136,000 of an estimated $273,000 project. Funds will be used to construct the first phase of a skate park in the Williamson Area of Central Park. This phase of the skate park will include a free-form, multiple-concrete-bowl structure, with three bowls of varying depths (ie., 4’, 6’ and 10’) for skaters of varying abilities; a central "Snake Run," with gentle, free-formed curves and wide roll-out areas; a connector pipe between the 6’ and 10’ bowls; and a meandering, access path from parking facilities being built by the County in the Fall of 1998 as part of a new ballfield complex. [See the Project Location and Central Park maps, in Appendix ‘A’ and ‘B’]. Supportive amenities in this Phase I will include the following: installation of a water line to the area, with drinking fountains; a full-service restroom building, with men’s and women’s rooms; a septic field to support this building; and related landscaping and signage. A complete plan for the skateboard park, including Phase II construction which is proposed for a future round of Keystone funding, is in Appendix ‘J’. Briefly, Phase II includes a level area of blacktop, approximately 70 x 70’ square, with a variety of concrete street-track structures, including an elongated pyramid with steps and sharply-sloped inclines mimicking structures encountered in an inner-city streetscape, a concrete half-moon, or "taco", a half-pipe of concrete built into a southerly slope with a ninety-degree configuration, assorted rails, and spectator areas for competitions/expositions. It will also include pathways to this street track from Davis Drive to the north, and expanded macadam walkways to the phase I bowl, for variety in skate board access as well as for in-line skaters. The Skate Park is located on a level plateau in the Williamson Area of Central Park. This photo shows the site prior to construction. This facility will be constructed in the northeast corner of Central Park, located in Lancaster City and West Lampeter Township in the central part of Lancaster County. The Williamson Area, the oldest section of Central Park, consists of gently-rolling topography with lawn areas and small woodlands, an internal road network, two pavilions, a small rock outcrop with views of Lancaster City, and stately, mature shade trees, planted by Henry S. Williamson when he originally donated the park to Lancaster City for public use in 1903. The County acquired this property in 1971. Additions made by the County include two basketball courts immediately north of the proposed skate park, a playground and restroom on Loop Drive to the southwest and adjoining the two pavilions, and numerous memorial tree plantings, creating a small arboretum. A layout of the Williamson Area, and its relationship to Central Park is enclosed in Appendix ‘B’. Surrounding land uses are parkland, both active and passive. To the north are two basketball courts, renovated by the Department of Parks and Recreation in 1995, and an arboretum of memorial trees to prominent Lancastrians. To the south, there is a landscaped area with mature trees leading to a new ballfield complex, consisting of a softball field, Little League field, and youth soccer field, and a one-hundred car parking lot. To the east are manicured lawn areas and a small wooded/scrub brush area. To the west are woodlands and additional recreation facilities in Central Park, and the Conestoga River. Outside of the park, the surrounding land uses are mixed. To the northwest, the park is bounded by Riverview Cemetery and the Conestoga River. To the north, on the opposite side of South Duke Street, a low- to moderate-income neighborhood exists. This neighborhood, which consisted of dilapidated houses and shacks which were originally built as vacation cottages at the turn of the century, is seeing a re-birth as condemned buildings are being razed and other houses are being renovated and upgraded. The County is working with Lancaster City officials and members of the Lancaster Inter-Municipal Committee to construct a Conestoga River Greenway in this area, with publicly-accessible hiking trails in selected areas. This will add a pedestrian or bicycle, off-road access for people who require access to the skate park from points in the eastern part of Lancaster City. To the east and northeast, up-scale residential neighborhoods (duplex and condominium housing) have been built, utilizing real estate of a former amusement park. On the east side of the park, immediately across Eshelman Mill Road are two large residential lots with single-family dwellings and a utility property with a microwave communications tower. To the southeast, an Old-Order Amish farm exists, with row crops and outbuildings. This facility will provide new, outdoor public skateboarding and inline skating facilities, the only such facilities in the County. Lancaster County (and indeed, most of central and eastern Pennsylvania) are extremely deficient of facilities for skaters and, particularly, skateboarders. Both skateboarding and inline skating are sports with tremendous growth over the past decade. Skateboarding is the sixth largest participant sport in the United States, and third among youth ages 6 to 18 years of age. From the period of 1989 to 1997, inline skating grew 850%, and grew faster than any other sport or recreational activity. By 1997, more than 30 million individuals in the U.S. skated. The only public facility in the County was managed by Elizabethtown Area Recreation Commission. Unfortunately, it closed in March of 1998, due to its proximity to residential neighborhoods, and complaints by residents of noise from the skateboarders jumping and ‘grinding’ (scraping the bottom of the fiberglass board) on street-type structures. In March, 1997, Lancaster City added Chapter 256 to its City Ordinance No. 6-1997, prohibiting skateboarding in the central, downtown area of the City. This was enacted in response to complaints from store owners due to skateboards scraping and damaging public mall amenities such as steps, planter boxes, benches and railings. The new law also prevents skateboarders from skateboarding in a manner which obstructs pedestrian traffic, or impedes the flow of vehicular traffic. It provides for penalties of $50 per offense, plus other fees. Similarly, the School District of Lancaster has called police to enforce its ‘No Trespassing’ provisions on school-district property, making it an offense for skateboarders to skate on school district sidewalks, parking lots, etc. after normal school hours. In May, 1998, Lancaster Township Supervisors (Lancaster Township is immediately west and southwest of Lancaster City) adopted Ordinance 1998-03, similar to Lancaster City’s in prohibiting skateboarders from public structures, or on sidewalks, roads, and other areas where they are considered a hazard. It also imposed a $50 fine. From complaints received after these ordinances became law, several skateboarders have been cited and fined, causing conflict between City officials and teens, as well as frustrating parents, who wonder where their children can enjoy this sport in a City and Township which considers it a crime [See endorsement letters from Lancaster City and other municipal officials in Appendix ‘D’]. There is presently one privately-owned skating facility (entitled "More Skates") in the County; this is located indoors, in an industrial park in Rapho Township in the northwest part of the County. This facility charges individuals $5-7 per day for admission. The individual responsible for this facility has been a member of the Ad Hoc Committee to build a public skate park in the County. There are two additional, indoor facilities planned but not yet built: one in Manheim Township entitled ‘East Coast Recreational Center’, and a small street track on Water Street, in Lancaster. Similarly, considerable admission fees are planned. These facilities are exclusively street-track oriented (ie., they have wooden structures or half-pipes erected on a flat surface); they do not have the gentle, bowl designs which are prominent features at numerous, west-coast skate parks and which encourage the less-experienced skater to develop their skills gradually and separated from experienced skateboarders. On a regional level (eastern and central Pennsylvania), there are a few skate parks within two hours’ driving distance of Lancaster. They include two private sites in Ivyland and Line Lexington, Bucks County; FDR Park, a public street track (constructed by volunteers and not formally acknowledged by the City) under the I-95 bridge in the City of Philadelphia; a private park in Allentown, and three private tracks in the Pocono region (in Blakeslee, Brodheadsville, and Marshall’s Creek). A municipally-owned street track is presently being built in the City of Reading, in Berks County. This County project, being in Lancaster City and West Lampeter Township, will do much to contribute to an area with existing recreational needs. This area of the park is located in the City's Seventh Ward, an area with a considerable population of low-income families and minorities. By 1990 Census data, this area is surrounded by Census Tract #’s 8, 9, 15, and 16. These four tracts make up what is referred to as the Southeast Quadrant of the City. This Quadrant contains 74% of the low-to-moderate-income persons within the City of Lancaster. Over half of the minorities in the City — 60% of all blacks, and 56% of all Hispanics — live within the Southeast Quadrant. The quadrant also has the highest unemployment levels in the City, at roughly fourteen to sixteen percent. Similarly, these improvements will help West Lampeter Township in its provisions of parks and recreational services. The Township, with a 1990 population of 9,865, is among the fastest-growing in Lancaster County, and the fastest growing in the greater Lancaster City area, having grown by 44% (from 6,836 persons) since 1980. Using a well-established, NRPA and County planning standard of 10 acres of local parkland per thousand residents, West Lampeter Township should have 98.7 acres of local, municipal parkland. At present, it has two park properties, totalling 6.6 acres. Considering school district acreage used for outdoor recreation, this figure increases to 72.6 acres of parkland or open space areas available for public use. This would indicate a deficit of 26.1 acres as of 1992. The Township is currently negotiating for the purchase of a 51.6-acre property for a community park. However, this will not likely be developed for several years. The provision of a skateboard park on the border of West Lampeter Township, and restroom facilities which provide a higher level of park-visitor service at County ballfields located in the Township, will do a small but important part to improve the overall delivery of recreational programs, particularly organized softball, Little League, and soccer play within this township. The facility will also implement one of the objectives of the Lancaster County Comprehensive Plan, which states a policy goal to "Provide for a diversity of parkland and recreational opportunities to meet the needs of all County residents", and a County-wide objective to "Ensure that adequate funding is available for the acquisition and development of public park, open space and recreation facilities", including establishing "long range capital improvement programs to ensure that adequate annual funding resources are available for the continued acquisition and development of a well balanced public recreation system." Additionally, an Urban Objective in the plan, under the Parks and Recreation section, calls for "...existing urban centers such as Lancaster City, Columbia Borough, and Quarryville Borough, should provide both traditional and innovative types of urban recreational opportunities and experiences." This type of recreational planning was reaffirmed in the Planning Commission’s release of ReVisions, a Draft Policy Plan update document in September, 1998. Under the Key Focus Area entitled "Developing livable communities," the update calls for policy makers to "Encourage existing communities to establish a central focus that combines commercial, civic, cultural, and recreation uses." In the Key Focus Area entitled "Celebrating, investing in, and mobilizing the talents of our human resources", the update calls for policy makers to "Provide services to strengthen and support families, children, and youth at risk.", and to "Invest in youth-based civic organizations and activities." This facility is in keeping with those objectives [A supportive letter from Ronald Bailey, Director of the Lancaster County Planning Commission, is enclosed in Appendix ‘E’]. The skate park will add a much-needed, active recreation facility to the northeast side of the Williamson Area of Central Park. This area of the park, which has limited views in some areas due to rolling topography, wooded islands, and large trees, has been the site of illicit activity, including drug possession and drug sales over the past decade. Because it is not located next to any large recreational facilities, such as the Conestoga Area of Central Park (which by contrast, has a pool, three pavilions, park office, and Garden of Five Senses), it is under-used by park visitors. It was formerly part of the Williamson Park, a park designed and constructed by philanthropist Henry Williamson in the early 1900’s. While its landscapes and vistas were an important escape from City industrial life at the turn of the century, it has been surpassed in passive recreational experiences by other larger, more-sustainable natural environs in Central Park. These environs including large, mature wooded stands, meadow areas with native vegetation, and stream corridors complete with a network of hiking, equestrian, and mountain biking trails. The average hiker in the 1990’s would find a leisurely walk along the trails paralleling Mill Creek in the Exhibit Farm Area of the park, or through wildflower trails in the Kiwanis Area a more-welcome respite than a walk in the smaller, mowed-landscape environment of the Williamson Area. The character of the landscape, with a bowl-shaped topography and centrally-located open space areas with level slope, call for the location of facilities which existing topography and trees would complement [See the photographs of this area of Williamson Park, in Appendix ‘C’]. The department’s improvement to existing basketball courts in Summer, 1995 made the area more-conducive to active recreation. This area is the site of informal pickup games after school by youth, and informal games by adults in the summer season. The mature trees surrounding this area, including oak and ash trees in excess of 100’ height, provide shade and a visual complement and reference to open grassy and court areas. In September of 1998, the County began construction of two large ballfield complexes in Central Park, to replace three ballfields atop a settling landfill. One of these two complexes is located immediately south of the Williamson Area, on Eshelman Mill Road. The skate park improvements and link to a large, active recreation complex, with three ballfields and ample parking will do much to increase recreational use, particularly by young people. The site is ideally suited for this type of active recreation area. Its gentle topography and overall landforms create a bowl effect, or a landscape where the outer rim is higher than the center. This — combined with the masses of vegetation and mature shade trees — will contain, or suppress the noise that is typically generated at these facilities. Unlike skateboard parks which are located in neighborhood parks with residential building facades facing them, this park is not in view of surrounding residential neighbors. This provides a buffer for conflicts which can occur between active recreational and residential interests. Skate parks which have closed due to their proximity to residences have done so typically because of noise, painted graffiti on concrete skateboard structures, or due to fears about these types of recreational facilities’ effects on real estate values. The facility’s location in a large, County regional park, with ample room for separation from surrounding land uses, will prevent this. However, this area of Central park is located within the political boundaries of Lancaster City (with a population of 55,210 persons in 1990) and in the hub of Lancaster County, with a 1997 estimated population of 454,063. It is readily accessible from existing state roads (Route 272, 222) which come within close proximity of Central Park. City arterial roads which lead to the skateboard park include South Duke Street, Broad Street, and Eshelman Mill Road. The site will be located immediately south of two basketball courts, and will become a day use area for active recreation, tailored for youth. With connecting pathways to the ballfield complex, the potential will exist for entire families to have recreational opportunities. The skate park will provide opportunities for recreation for younger family members not interested in organized team sports, or for older family members interested in inline skating for fitness/aerobic conditioning. With facilities planned for Phase II, secondary paved pathways with banked curves will provide additional inline skating opportunities around the Williamson Area. There is an added benefit to the location of this facility in a County, regional park. The parking lot for ballfield use, which is typically used from April to July by softball leagues, will be available in the fall for skateboard tournaments or expositions, concurrently with fall use of the single soccer field. Similarly, the large, grassy areas surrounding the facility and the bowl-shaped topography will lend themselves well to viewing of tournaments by a large number of spectators. This has the potential of drawing persons from a multiple County, or Mid-Atlantic regional area to this skate park, resulting in economic benefits for Lancaster City and surrounding commercial interests. Lancaster City, with its network of interstate highways and short travelling distances to Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Allentown, and Baltimore would be a prime candidate for regional skateboarding expositions. Access to the site is presently from the northwest, via grassy areas and a small, pull-in parking lot, with inadequate capacity for the existing basketball courts. These improvements will provide access from the south, with ample parking as a result of current construction of a 100-car parking lot for newly-located ballfields. The proposed facilities will include ADA-compliant walkways and accessible restrooms, so persons in wheelchairs will have access to view skateboarders and inline skaters (while the applicant does not envision handicapped individuals participating in skateboarding or inline skating, there is the likely occurrence of a grandparent coming to the area to watch their grandson or granddaughter demonstrate their talents). The restroom improvements and water brought to the site will have concurrent benefits to users of the existing basketball courts, and to users of the ballfield complex. The facilities proposed for construction will be maintained by the Lancaster County Department of Parks and Recreation, utilizing existing park maintenance and park ranger staff. The Department has 31 full time and 78 part-time and seasonal staff, and a 1998 budget of $3.6 million, including $893,000 for routine park maintenance and general operations (excluding payroll). It manages 2,018 acres of parkland, located at six regional parks and two recreational trails. The contractor's shotcrete gunner sprays the material into the metal skeleton of the bottom section of the Full Pipe. The metal band at the top will anchor a steel half pipe, forming the top half of the Full Pipe's 16' diameter. The County is opting to construct this skate park for skate boarders and in-line skaters only. In other words, free cycling is prohibited, due to the potential for serious injury from collisions with the former two user groups, and the potential damage the bike’s under-carriage and pedal bars can cause to the smoothly-shaped concrete. Materials to be used for the bowls (shot-crete or gunnite, which is concrete sprayed at high pressure on to a steel reinforcement rod framework, with metal pipe edges/corners) are designed for low maintenance and durability. The department did not opt for any sheet metal or wood half- or full-pipe designs, which require much more routine maintenance and/or replacement in an outdoor setting. In early 1999, having received approval to contract a design firm, the County hired David Lynch and Associates Architects to complete the design of the park, from their earlier work as part of the April 18, 1998 design charette and their assistance in doing preliminary plans for a cost estimate and the Keystone grant application. Approximately half-way through the design process, as they were completing construction details, they learned from their insurance carrier that the insurance company would not underwrite this work as part of their professional liability, and errors and omissions insurance, without charging them an additional fee. This was primarily because, although they had been part of the design process from the ground up, their firm (consistent with virtually all design firms on the east coast) had never designed a skate park before. Understandably, the insurance carrier was concerned about designs which might deviate from well-tested designs on the west coast, where designers have the benefit of long-term operation (ie., 24+ years) of public skate parks. This was a no-win situation for David Lynch Associates, as the additional premiums for liability were roughly, over 14 years, about six times the cost that they were charging the County for the design, bid and construction administration for this project. In the early summer of 1999, David Lynch Associates offered to donate the work they had done so far to the County, provided the County would issue them a letter releasing them from any liability if the drawings were used by the County, or turned over to another designer who would modify and complete them. The County did so, and David Lynch Associates continued to play a key role in this park’s construction, E-mailing (or creating and sending CD-ROM’s of) the CAD files for this project to several prospective design firms. The County estimates that this donation and release of drawings by the architect, while delaying the bidding and construction of the project, saved the County about $9,000. Armed with the near-final plans and construction drawings, the parks and recreation department director for the County sought to obtain design firms with skate park design experience and adequate insurance to oversee the project. A new Request for Proposals (RFP) was developed and sent to five firms on the west coast, obtained from the director’s knowledge of skate park designers obtained at a national conference, and from a listing provided by the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). Throughout late summer and fall, negotiations took place with these firms on the scope of the project, qualifications, and insurance. Admittedly, these were difficult times, as two firms initially contacted on the west coast, and one in the Lancaster area opted not to submit proposals. This was because they would have been taking on the designs of another firm, making minor changes, and issuing them as their own. There was a probable issue of artistic integrity here. This, coupled with west coast demand, and the current backlog of western skate park projects, has made a project in Pennsylvania less-desirable for some west-coast designers. The Lancaster-based firm opted out because of the same insurance difficulties experience by David Lynch Associates. Three west-coast firms did submit proposals, and from these, a contract was drawn up with Purkiss Rose-RSI, a landscape architecture firm in Fullerton, California. The contract was executed by the Board of Commissioners in January, 2000, with a target for completion of the first-phase skate park in July, 2000. The design-insurance obstacle had finally been overcome. It is worth mentioning that part of the negotiations included recognition of licensed, landscape architects, who were licensed to seal drawings in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Because this project was half funding by PA-DCNR, a PA-licensed architect’s, landscape architect’s, or engineer’s seal must appear on the design and construction drawings. Several firms did not have this, and would have been required to go through a review with Pennsylvania’s Licensure Board, under a "reciprocity-review" process. Fortunately, Purkiss-Rose had a landscape architect who previously worked in Pennsylvania, and who was licensed here, so they did not have to go through this process which could delay state approval of plans and construction documents some 2-3 months, or longer. Many persons have asked us if our own insurance carrier will cover this facility, when completed. We took a pro-active stance in this regard, and included them in the design process as well as field inspections. They have advised us that, as long as this facility conforms to current standards (and in the absence of firm design and management standards, accepted practice) in the skate park industry, they will insure it. Upon a review of the plans, their greatest concerns were: 1. That the facility be completely fenced, so persons would not inadvertently walk into the facility without reading the warning signs and regulations for use, and so persons would not accidentally fall into a 10’ concrete bowl. 2. That signs be carefully worded, indicating the degree of risk and the requirement to wear helmets, knee and elbow pads. Municipalities should note that Lancaster County is a government entity with some 43 departments, and manages such facilities as a nursing home and County prison. The Parks and Recreation Department manages a swimming pool with capacity for 1,500 patrons, an environmental center, a sheer cliff on the Susquehanna River which hosts numerous rock climbing and repelling events, sports fields and mountain bike trails. These facilities carry with them a high potential for liability in comparison to a skate park. Therefore, an insurance company for a small, local government may look differently on the relative risk of a skate park of this magnitude with facilities managed by local governments. Purkiss Rose - RSI commenced work on the project in February, and proceeded to make subtle, but important changes in the design, based upon their experience with dozens of skate parks in California, Oregon, and Washington. ‘Hip’ areas, or slight protrusions in the walls of the concrete at mid-height were made more pronounced, giving skaters the ability to gain more "air". An Entry Plaza, or large, concrete patio, was added next to the novice end of the snake run, where large numbers of skaters are anticipated to congregate, for putting their gear on, socializing, and waiting their turn. Following review by the Department’s skate park committee, the entry ramp at the deep (6.5’) end of the snake run was removed, so as not to impede smooth skating around this terminus, which is essentially a half-bowl. In the deeper, 6’ and 10’ bowls, corners near the full pipe were rounded, to eliminate blind spots from persons exiting the full pipe and entering the bowls; this was seen as a way to reduce the potential for collisions. Following the County’s review of probable construction cost, there was a realization that the design process, while improving the skate-ability of this facility, had dramatically increased the project’s size and probable cost. For example, a County-contracted review of the design by Tim Payne in late 1998 and early 1999, a design-build contractor in Florida with a reputation for building very-skateable skate parks, increased the width of the snake run from an average width of 20’ to 39’. The 12’ diameter full pipe was increased to 16’, as skaters typically have difficulty with a smaller-diameter pipe. Lastly, the three bowls were changed from round to oval, to increase interest. As Tim Payne noted, skating in a perfectly-round bowl is like rolling a marble back and forth in a cereal bowl: it becomes uninteresting after a while. The oval shape encourages skating patterns different from a plain-linear, back-and-forth motion. The decking had also grown. In the original designs (upon which the cost estimates and grant application to PA-DCNR were based), the decking was typically 3-4’, and in some areas, as little as 2’. After formal design and review by Tim Payne, many areas were 12’ wide, with some as wide as 17’. Obviously, these increases in concrete were going to greatly inflate the costs. As a result of this final review, the director and the County engineer’s office directed Purkiss Rose to decrease the overall length of the snake run 40’; this included a 15’ reduction at the east (deep) end, and a 25’ reduction at the west (shallow) end. Moreover, the decking around the facility was reduced to 7’ throughout. These changes were seen as reducing costs moderately, while impacting functionality only slightly; it was estimated that some 18-20 skaters could skate simultaneously in the earlier design; with the new design, 16-18 persons would likely be able to skate simultaneously. In particular, the northern deck area, adjacent to the full pipe on the outside perimeter, was seen as almost unnecessary, since it is a non-skating area that has limited views of the facility. All discussions concluded that investing in a centrally-located, entry plaza was a better choice. | ||||||||