Skate park neighbors deserve fair shake

Publication Date: 08/14/09

The new Upchurch Skate Park is a wonderful addition to recreation on Anastasia Island. But its back-fence neighbors on Flamingo Drive are not as overjoyed as the skateboarders.

That doesn't surprise us. The Borde del Mar neighborhood has new sounds to contend with: the near-constant "clack-clack, clack-clack" of the skateboards against the concrete throughout the day and early evening. A skateboard park is loud, and the noise is constant because of the nature of the activity. But that's not what the residents expected. They were promised noise barriers. That didn't happen because the barrier design got lost in the plan's emphasis on a stormwater runoff system for the site behind the city's Anastasia Island Fire Station.

In response to the neighbors, the city is fast-tracking an earthen berm to attack the noise problem. The target completion time is three months. That's short time for government, but we are confident the city will come through on time. The neighbors don't deserve the noise. They didn't ask for it. They were there before the park was built. Promises were made that didn't happen.

But the city is on the right track now. Mayor Joe Boles set the bar higher for public-private partnerships on Monday night at the city commission meeting when he said partnerships won't proceed to construction until all the funds are in hand and the public affected is part of the decision-making process.

We'd add to his intention: greater oversight by the city from start to finish. Private groups mean well, but often they have goals in mind that do not always mesh with a local government's best practices in reaching the finished project in a manner respectful of all interested.

City officials say that in the interim of the noise barrier being built, there will be a visual screening of the park from the neighborhood and greater enforcement of park operation rules by the police department so that skaters are not in the park when it is closed.

Upchurch Park was meant to be a fun place for the community's youngsters and young adults to skateboard, away from the perils of city streets and traffic. It can still be that way with the city's expedited construction of a berm. The neighbors deserve more consideration than they were initially given.

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