City considers building new skate park

The board of the Regional Parks Trails and Recreation District is looking into options for a new skate park in Belgrade.

The board had, at its April 2 meeting, directed city staff to find a suitable location for a 5,000-square-foot skate park. Jordan Green, city parks director, examined the parks in the city and determined a new skate park would be most feasible at Corbett Park or Jerry Askin Park.

Speaking to the board at its May 7 meeting, Green said Jerry Askin Park is potentially a good candidate because it already has bathrooms and a large parking lot, among other features.

“It's still relatively located in town as opposed to some other locations with large parks like Ryen Glenn,” Green said at the May 7 meeting. “But it would be providing an amenity for the youth and team groups on the south side of Belgrade, which is rapidly growing and doesn't have a lot of that type of amenity down there right now.”

A drawback of Jerry Askin Park is that there isn’t much room for a skate park, according to Green. Additionally, careful planning would be needed to prevent a skate park from interfering with people’s use of the existing band shell, he added.

Corbett Park, with its park tables and playground set, is less developed than Jerry Askin Park and has a field or large undeveloped area that is underutilized, according to Green.

“The biggest impact if we were to look at doing a skate park out there [at Corbett Park] would be that you would be removing this field space from any potential field sports in the future,” Green said. “We've got some other ones in town, but that is definitely an important consideration when we look at that park. One thing that I think is nice about this park is it is still in a pretty dense residential neighborhood with houses facing inward towards the park. So it's highly visible. That's going to deter vandalism, crimes, things like that.”

Corbett Park is large enough and far enough away from nearby homes that skating noise may not be a problem for nearby residents, according to Green.

“A lot of our parks that have proximity to residential uses, those residential uses are kind of like right on top of the park,” Green said. “This one is a little bit more spread out, provides a little bit more separation between the users of the park and the homes nearby, but that is definitely a consideration as well.”

Another thing that might make Corbett Park a good place for a new skate park is that it would offer youth and teen amenities in an area that doesn’t currently have a lot of them, according to Green.

"So, this is kind of meeting that same variable of trying to spread those options out over different park spaces in town,” Green said.

Parking wouldn’t be a challenge at Corbett Park, as there’s street parking nearby, and there’s enough room for a parking lot to be built if needed, according to Green.

If one had to pick a third possibility for a new location for a skate park, it would be Sunnyside Park, he indicated.

“The problem with that one is there are some sports activities that have happened out there in the past -- we have field sport activities,” Green said. “And then the parking out there is pretty limited as well, and there's not a ton of room to build more parking.”

Green will seek advice from someone he knows who is familiar with skate parks and skating competitions.

"I'm working with a gentleman who's moving to Belgrade from the Kalispell/Whitefish area,” Green said. “He used to organize skate camps up there to bring something like that here. And he's got some ideas as well for what possibilities might happen, what he might be able to bring to the table or what his contacts might be able to bring to the table."

Board members made no decision on this topic at their May 7 meeting.

This is a developing story, and more information will be provided when available.