The Foundry Park design plan project, including a skateboard park and playground, has taken another step forward toward fruition in Orillia.
On Wednesday evening at the Orillia Recreation Centre, members of the public were invited to learn more about the skateboard park component of the project and were treated to 3D renderings of what the park may look like.
Bill Gurney, landscape architect and senior project manager for New Line Skate Parks, is one of the designers tasked with providing the city with a proposed design for the potential new park.
He says seeing more than 50 people at Wednesday’s workshop shows "there is a really strong community interest and appetite for this project to become a reality.”
Gurney says the design of the skateboard park will be well-rounded and appealing to a broad range of people.
“We’ve considered different age groups and different skill levels,” he said. “We want to make it as inclusive as possible.”
The design was put together with the input of local skateboarders, community members, and parents who participated in three community workshops and online polls.
“We tried really hard to make a design that is budget-specific, site-specific, and specific to the requests coming directly from the community,” Gurney said. “We tried really hard to make it appeal to the active users in terms of the style of the park and terrain featured.”
Between all three workshops, Gurney estimates more than 600 people gave their thoughts and input into the skateboard park.
“The design is offering a lot of flat ground street features,” Gurney said. “Flat ledges, flat rails, and curbs. At the same time, people wanted some elevation change and stair drops which is why we have a few different sections where the bank changes two-and-a-half feet, the equivalent of a five-stair set.”
The budget for the project is $1.5 million, and the approval for the funding will have to go through council.
“The whole point of this exercise right now is we’ve been hired for design in advance of the funding being approved,” Gurney said. “This has been an exercise of engaging community interest, and an exercise is envisioning the project, so at such a time the funding is approved, it’s ready to move forward.”
Assuming funding gets approved, Gurney says it would take just three months to build the new facility.
Mark Watson, the owner of downtown skateboard and apparel shop, Pocket Skate & Vintage, has been an active skateboarder in Orillia since he was 12 years old. He says Gurney and his team are doing an "amazing job" of designing the skate park.
“I really like the bank with all the brickwork that can go into it,” he said. “That could be used not only as a cool backdrop for the skate park for artwork and stuff like that, but we can also use it as a fundraising tool where people could buy a brick and have their name go into the park for good.”
When it comes to what needs to be improved in the final design, Watson would like to see the park grow a little larger.
“I don’t think it’s big enough for the amount of traffic it’s going to see,” he said. “I still think they’ve done an amazing job designing it and anybody who gets to use it is going to be blown away by how good it is.”
Watson would also like to see there be an area for beginners to help grow the sport.
“An area where you can teach kids how to push, how to roll, how to go up and down things without being in the big park with people flying around,” he said. “We still have lots of room to play with and that could be something that could be built later.”
Sitting on the waterfront near Couchiching Beach Park, Watson says the current Kiwanis skateboard park in downtown Orillia has “taken a beating” withstanding over 20 years of winter weather.
“The skate park that we have now is great, Kiwanis did a great job getting it built, but that was 20-plus years ago,” he said.
Watson says the current skateboard park can't accommodate the number of skateboarders who are trying to use it.
“There isn’t much that could be done to expand it, which is why we are going for a new one.”
During Wednesday’s workshop, there was some concern from community members about a new skate park potentially becoming a hub for graffiti. However, Watson doesn’t see it being a problem.
“I would say 90 percent of the new skate parks that are built the way this one is designed, outside of rec centres, they have no problems anymore because they are put in sight,” he said. “The Barrie, Orillia and other skate parks in other towns have been tucked away and fenced off. They look like jail yards and get treated that way.”
Watson says it’s meaningful that the city is allowing local skaters to have input into the potential new park.
“We wanted to be a part of this to make sure everything gets done properly and through the right channels,” he said. “With having all these people come in and give input, it’s bound that they will be able to build something that will work for everyone.”
Watson concedes the current design misses some elements that would benefit skateboarders, BMX bikers, and scooter riders.
“It’s hard to appease everybody, but there are still changes that can be made. This isn’t the final say.”
The final survey for the design of the potential new skate park is live now. You can find it by clicking here.
