BRATTLEBORO — Tacos were on the menu at the Gibson-Aiken Center on a recent evening.
So were hubbas, hips, and half-pipes.
This wasn't a dinner, though. It was a meeting to help design the town's future skatepark.
As any skateboard enthusiast can tell you, tacos, hubbas, hips, and half-pipes are cast-concrete features of a skatepark, components that make skating fun and dynamic.
This workshop, held on Sept. 20, was the second one the Recreation and Parks Department has convened to gather public opinion specifically about the park's design.
At the first one, held in August, staff from Stantec, the firm designing the park, collected general input. They also created a public survey.
This time, engineer Chris Long and his colleague, landscape architect Mitch Jensen, returned with two plans to review with attendees.
Both plans site the structure - to be made of cast-in-place concrete - on 4,900 square feet at Living Memorial Park. Each plan includes a nearby parking area.
A handful of local skaters, supporters, town staff, neighbors, and other interested parties chimed in. Long and Jensen will bring their comments back to their offices, and return soon with a final plan.
If all goes well, construction could begin next spring or summer, said Recreation & Parks Department Director Carol Lolatte.
A long journey
Some attendees remarked on how long it's taken to get to the building phase.
In opening, Lolatte briefly recapped the long process, which “started many years ago,” she said, when a group of townspeople came to tell her, “We need a place to skate.”
Her department began working with a new ad hoc town committee, Brattleboro Area Skatepark Is Coming (BASIC), to find a suitable location, work on the design, and secure funding.
Crowell Lot was the first serious contender for siting, and BASIC signed a five-year lease with the town for the property. But after some residents rallied a contentious campaign against putting the skatepark in that location, that site was shelved.
Lolatte and BASIC members then searched public and private properties town-wide for a new location, she said.
From about 25 options, the group narrowed it down to 8 or 9, and then they conducted site visits, ranking each location according to a set of criteria.
At a certain point, group members narrowed it down to three spots. Then, Lolatte said, the Selectboard told them, “You get Living Memorial Park” - up the hill a bit, in a spot now located near the dog park.
The site went through the state and local permitting process, said Lolatte, and included “numerous warned local meetings,” including hearings with the Selectboard and the Planning Department.
Zoning Administrator Brian Bannon noted that the town sent a letter to all neighbors near Living Memorial Park to inform them of the progress.
Once the Recreation Department and BASIC secured the permits, both entities then needed to raise about $200,000 in grants and donations for the project.
When that goal was met in late spring, they developed a budget and put out a bid to find a firm to design the park, Lolatte said.
In mid-June, the Selectboard awarded Stantec the contract to design the skatepark.
Lolatte told the board she recommended the company, with offices in Boston and Burlington, because they have experience building skateparks in cold climates, their bid was “very comprehensive and direct,” and the town has worked with the firm before.
Part of the design process, Lolatte said, is gathering public input. She described the step as “mandatory,” because the goal is to incorporate what the community wants in a skatepark, “not what Carol wants in a skatepark,” she said.
The goal, she said, is to make current and future skaters happy, whether they are beginners or experts.
Safety was a theme of Lolatte's comments - ensuring everyone is safe, year-round, and that includes skaters and others who enjoy the park.
One concern Lolatte shared with attendees was how to design the area around the park to encourage skaters not to skate down the hill from the skatepark to Living Memorial Park's Guilford Street entrance, but, rather, walk.
“The fastest way down [is] not walking,” Lolatte noted, concerned that skating down the driveway, which is used by cars, walkers, and bikers, could cause collisions.
Regarding the possibility of dogs chasing skaters, Lolatte pointed out, “Dogs at the park have to be in the dog park or on leash.”
A skatepark that 'feels like Brattleboro'
Long told attendees that he and Jensen want to design a skatepark that “feels like Brattleboro,” and is functional and timeless, so the next generation can skate there.
“You guys get the park you want. We just enable it,” Long said.
He noted the park isn't just for skaters.
“We want a place where other people can hang out, too, and not feel out of place,” said Long, and noted the entire area should be “open and integrated.”
The two plans he presented had areas for skaters at-rest, visitors, and those photographing or filming the action.
The two plans differed mostly in their respective footprints: One was a V-shape, and the other was a continuous triangular loop.
Both designs incorporate elements for aesthetics only, such as a sort of mosaic that looks like a sundial planned for the surface.
Long said he is working with members of the dance community who use an area near the skatepark to ensure their needs are integrated into the design, too.
He asked attendees to “think about the flow” when assessing the two proposals.
“How does the individual, and [how do] many people at the same time, move through the park?” Long asked.
Go with the flow
The discussion, which mostly took place among Long and about five skaters, primarily centered around the flow, and which elements contributed to or minimized it.
Long wanted to know whether the final design should make the design more friendly to street skating or transition, or vertical, skating.
In street skating, skaters interact with structures replicating objects like curbs and railings. Transition skating has its origins in the drought-emptied California swimming pools of the 1970s and allows for smooth elevation changes.
BASIC committee member Spencer Crispe said he liked the V-shaped design because “it really flows nice, and you can easily transition, and people filming or viewing can easily be in the center without being in the way.”
Barry Lane, a longtime advocate of the skatepark, said he likes the balance of the V-shaped design because it “lets those who are insecure feel secure and provide space for those who need challenges.”
He noted that his child was once a beginning skater who progressed and mentored others, and he observed that this proposal has more elements for learners to do the same thing.
“It's the spirit of Brattleboro to make space for all,” said Lane.
Chris Kane said the triangular option “has all the features I've been looking for,” except one: “Where do you stand when you're not skating?”
Long agreed that “there's not a ton of deck space.”
As participants went through the two designs and their respective elements, Long assured them “they can be changed, too. [...] We're not going to pick one [design] and throw the other out the door. We're going to meet somewhere in the middle” between the two concepts, he said.
This assurance made many of the more-vocal attendees happy - they said they wanted to integrate more of each concept's features into one design.
“You've given us a lot of really good input,” said Long.
The next step is for Long and Jensen to take the input and make a new design.
“Not every single thing will be in it,” Long cautioned, “but we'll get as much as makes sense for the use and the space.”
When that plan is complete, Long and Jensen will present it to the BASIC committee.
'A sweet thing'
Lolatte noted BASIC meetings are open to the public. After BASIC approves of a final design, it goes to the Development Review Board. Then, Long and his colleagues will come up with construction plans, and the town will put the project out to bid.
Lane, who was part of the original group that approached Lolatte about a skatepark - before BASIC, back when the members of the group called themselves the Green Mountain Skate Coalition - was pleased.
“It's a sweet thing to see this, after almost two decades,” he said.