The Town of Banff’s plans to build a skateboard park at the recreation grounds are rolling along.
The municipality has issued an expression of interest for qualified companies to design and build the long-awaited skateboard park – one of the first projects in the redevelopment of the rec grounds. Closing date is April 15.
“I think skateboarders are pretty excited. They’re a keen group of users that range from age of 10 to 45,” said Mary Brewster, the Town of Banff’s recreation implementation coordinator.
“If all goes according to plan, we’d be on site by April 2017 and getting ready to start the whole construction process, and we’d be opening by mid-August 2017 at the latest.”
Banff’s capital budget sets aside $1.1 million for the skateboard park. It’s part of the first phase of the $7.2 million redevelopment of the rec grounds, which will be carried out over the next 10 years.
The redevelopment plan calls for a 1,700 square metre skateboard park to accommodate some of the existing features such as the mini pipe currently popular with skateboarders, and addition of more features.
Brewster said the company eventually hired for the job will be required to consult with local skateboarders on the design, likely through a series of workshops.
“A hockey rink is pretty much a hockey rink, but this is a specialist area and you want to make sure you have a design for all ages and abilities,” said Brewster.
“Having the users involved allows them to have the things they want to have considered in the design.”
