close up with a skateboard

By Liam Verster

Sports and Recreation

An indoor skate park may be in Grande Prairie’s future

Oct 15, 2019 | 4:46 PM

At Tuesday’s Community Living Committee, Councillor Jackie Clayton put forth the motion to have staff explore models, potential locations, and potential partners, to establish and house an indoor skate park in Grande Prairie.

Building off the success of the outdoor skate park in Muskoseepi Park, Clayton’s idea is to create a mobile, temporary skate park for winter use. She says this is a winter city, and an indoor skate park would provide recreation opportunities for local youth who don’t participate in winter sports like hockey, basketball or soccer. She adds the park could accommodate skateboards, scooters, bikes and roller blades as well.

Clayton says the city, with help from community and business partners, would help create and build the facility.

“I don’t want the city to necessarily own or build a new facility. I think if it’s temporary or mobile in nature, we could use some of the existing empty commercial and retail buildings throughout the city.”

Clayton says she hasn’t put together a business plan yet, but has an idea of the cost of the project.

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“Initially I think the facility could be, at a small scale, in the hundreds-of-thousands of dollars, in regards to the construction of the assets. With them being mobile and temporary in nature, they could have a long life of being in different facilities. But through user groups and through corporate support, this facility could definitely grow over the years.”

After the skate park was proposed, the Committee discussed the idea, and asked for more time to reflect on the proposal.

The Committee wasn’t in favour of spending time and money researching the potential of the park or finding a location before partners agreed to sign on to the project. Clayton admits she hasn’t spoken to any potential partners, be it user groups, non-profit organizations or businesses, but she has a good feeling about a few groups who would back the indoor skate park project.

“There’s a number that come to mind, whether it’s youth focused, whether it’s recreation focused, or exclusively skateboard or scooter type groups. But I don’t think it’s limited to any specific group.”

The Committee voted in favour of having staff explore potential partners for establishing the indoor skate park, along with determining the city’s role in the project. Staff will report back with their findings at the next meeting, on Tuesday, October 29, where the proposed project will be discussed again, and potentially sent off to City Council for final deliberations and decisions.