A Spohn Ranch rendering shows how a skate park would fit in the town of St. John off Cline Avenue, but the design shown won't be what the park will look like.
ST. JOHN — Residents could soon see a skate park roll into town.
The St. John Park Board during a recent meeting decided to move forward with Los Angeles-based skate park design-build company Spohn Ranch for the development of a skate park near the Gates of St. John.
In 2018, Spohn Ranch designed and built a 7,000-square-foot skate park in Highland. The following year, the company built Hessville Park Skatepark in Hammond, which is 9,000 square feet.
The town is looking to have a skate park around 10,000 square feet, Tyler McLead, superintendent of St. John Parks and Recreation, has said previously.
During its February meeting, the Park Board was shown a design from Spohn Ranch's design library to get a feel of what a skate park could look like at the site.
The presented renderings would not be the final design of the skate park, as the town plans to gather community feedback on what they would like to see at the park through a survey and public meetings, McLead later told The Times in an email.
Though not the final design, Adam Eichorn, who works in skate park development at Spohn Ranch, said the 11,000-square-foot park fit well at the site, which is off Cline Avenue.
The presented rendering includes landscaping that would help buffer the park from surrounding homes, Eichorn said.
"This park ... does a lot for all different abilities and that's something that we do really well and that is create skate parks that are for all different user groups and ability levels," he said.
Vince Onel, principal and vice president of skate park development with Spohn Ranch, emphasized the renderings don't reflect the final design of the town's skate park.
"This is just a concept from our library that we overlaid on (the) site just to give you guys a visual, a discussion tool and to give you guys a sense for scale, or how big these skate parks are and how they fit into sites," Onel said. "This is not our proposed design for this project or a final design by any means."
Onel added Spohn Ranch would gather community input and use the responses to create a custom skate park for the town.
Park Board President Mike Bouvat asked if the park also would include elements for younger children.
Eichorn said Spohn Ranch will consider the ability of riders in the design process after receiving community feedback.
The Board also approved moving forward with Founders Park, repairs at Lake Hills Trail and the community garden project at Patnoe Park.
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