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Health & Fitness

Is It Time to Remodel the Lakeland Hills Skatepark?

Is the Lakeland Hills Skatepark in need of a remodel in order to be sustainable for future skaters coming into the community? Britton Lorentzen from Emerald Pacific takes a look into the issue.

When asked about the current state of the Lakeland Hills Skatepark, residents would answer that it is an embarrassment to the community.

Over the past few years, the Lake Tapps and Lakeland Hills communities have been some of the fastest growing around the area. With the expanding of an area comes the explosion of kids that will be moving in and interacting with one another. Where there are kids, there are bound to be a good mass of kids that will be skateboarders. There is the Lakeland Hills Skatepark for kids to skate at, but is it big enough and safe enough to serve as a home park to a majority of kids that will eventually be moving in and skating at the park? In the park's current state, it would not live up to par.

One of the kids that proposed the idea to remodel the Lakeland Hills Skatepark for future growth was local resident Spencer Huckaby.

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"We put together emails and sent them to the Parks and Recreation," Spencer says, "They said they would forward my emails to the mayor to consider the proposal. I haven't heard anything back from them. It makes it seem like they don't care to consider our concern."

While talking with Spencer, some of his concerns, as well as other Lakeland Hill residents' concerns, included a missing guard rail on their highest ramps, a flat bar breaking out and a park so small that it would not be able to sustain the amount of growth the community is experiencing. Another problem with the current park is how bland the park looks. With so many of the shopping outlets and housing bringing a contemporary feel to the community, the skatepark takes away from that contemporary feel.

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"Ideally, the community needs a skate plaza," Spencer proposes, "A skate plaza would make the park feel modern and also attract skaters to the park to skate the plaza instead of skating around Top Foods and skating in spots that skating isn't allowed."

One of the current movements that has been gaining steam over the past couple years has been Rob Dyrdek's "Safe Skate" spots through the Rob Dyrdek Foundation. Through the "Safe Skate" spots movement, hundreds of skateparks around the country have been either built or rebuilt to keep skaters from skating illegally on the streets. The parks were aimed to bring life to a community, bring a modern feel to the community, turn an eye sore into a beautiful park and make old/unsafe skateparks safer. An example of a park built through the Rob Dyrdek Foundation can be found in the pictures above.

What do you guys think? Is the Lakeland Hills Skatepark fine as it is or should some measures be taken to improve the park? Let us know in the comments below. Any and all comments are welcome. Have a story idea or something you would like brought to light? Send me an email at BrittonLorentzen@gmail.com and we will look into it.

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