By Brittany Kelley KYLE — Kyle City Council listened to a presentation on the city’s future skatepark at its Oct. 15 meeting, ultimately waiting to make a decision on next steps.
In November 2020, voters approved a park bond, including $1 million in improvements to Gregg-Clarke Park. Among these overall improvements was the addition of a skatepark, for which council approved an interlocal agreement with Hays County for $1 million toward the project in July 2022. Finally, in February 2023, a design contract with SPA Skateparks was approved. This contract was followed by two public engagement sessions, the completion of a construction design plan in March 2024 and site grading in May 2024.
According to Parks and Recreation Director David Lopez, the project was paused in June for new leadership to assess the project and determine the best path forward to complete the construction of the skatepark. Lopez revealed that he felt positive about working with SPA Skateparks, as they are one of the most reputable companies. After analyzing it, the Parks and Recreation Board voted unanimously to bring the existing design to council:
• 9,000 square feet
• Technical street terrain, with a triangular flow
• Different zones for different user speeds “What was important for the design was that the features catered to a wide range of user skill levels, especially for the novice. You really need over 50% of the features to cater to the beginner novice level users,” said Lopez.
“Also, in talking to SPA and revisiting this project … I said, ‘Hey. If we were to continue and explore options of maybe using a purchasing co-op, which they are on TIPS co-op, would we be able to keep this project in line with your original quote and get this completed within budget at or under a million?’ And the answer was, ‘Yes.’” Lopez said.
The options presented to council to vote on were either to take staff recommendation and move forward with pursuing the full construction of the skatepark design using SPA on a cooperative purchasing agreement or put out a Request for Qualifications and start the entire process from the beginning, including public engagement forums.
Beginning the discussion was council member Robert Rizo, stating that the swells in the park should be deeper because individuals that use bicycle motor crosses (BMX) are going to want to use the facility, as well, so the area needs to be adapted for all types of users. Because of this, he made a motion to put out another RFQ to restart the skatepark process.
“I was on the Parks [and Recreation] Board when this was originally discussed and I was part of the decision making on using SPA. I think that they gave us a tremendous amount of knowledge. They know exactly what they’re doing. I’m not going to second guess them because I am not a skater. I think that their bid was excellent and I would recommend going ahead and using them as we originally discussed,” said council member Lauralee Harris.
She also explained that when this was discussed, it was for skateboards, rollerblades and BMX and geared toward a younger audience, which is what was delivered in the concept designs.
Council member Michael Tobias stated that this is not about whether SPA is qualified, but if some of the designs could be changed to add deeper swells and how much this would cost.
According to Lopez, there is funding allocated in the Capital Improvements Plans fund for BMX and mountain bikes, which could be used to build a pump track in the future.
“If council wants to come back with more options and looking at expanding the budget to meet whatever those options are, I think we have that flexibility to do it, whether that’s $2 million, $3 million or whatever the number is based on the design elements that you wanted to have. Maybe what we could do is go back to SPA and ask them to look at the swells,” said city manager Bryan Langley.
“I have PTSD after the splash pad because I think everybody’s kind of agreed that we built it to a poor standard and we don’t want to make that mistake, again,” said Mayor Travis Mitchell, who was in favor of increasing the budget substantially for the skatepark project.
“My biggest concern with the skatepark was the lack of shade, which is something that we could install outside of the project at a later time because it’s Texas,” said Lopez.
Council member Daniela Parsley agreed with this sentiment, adding that places for parents to sit, water fountains and bathrooms would also be a positive addition.
“If we’re going to build a skatepark, let’s build it to the full extent of what we think the community deserves and not one inch short of that,” Mitchell stressed.
Concerned about the well-being of the other parks, council Miguel Zuniga reminded the others on the dais that there was only $25 million budget toward the parks in the budget, which means that if money is being allocated toward the skatepark, the rest of the parks will have less funding for lighting, sidewalks and more.
“Let us go back, take a look at some options [and] look at some of these amenities that you’ve mentioned to us; let’s look at some of the leading projects of this type,” said “Then, we can have a little bit more educated discussion about what are those offsets and opportunity costs are. Perhaps they’re significant and they would cannibalize another project, but maybe not.”
City staff will prepare several options for council to discuss at a later meeting. No action was taken.
Kyle City Council will next meet on Nov. 19.
