What was to be a temporary feature, the Mahon skate park will now be a permanent structure in the City of North Vancouver park.
City of North Vancouver commenced construction of Mahon skate park last week (June 13), as the municipal government confirmed that what was to be a temporary stopgap will now be a permanent feature in the park.
Council expects the skate park to be fully completed this summer, after a workshop with skateboard community members in May was held to talk about its design. Feedback from the workshop and an online survey were taken into consideration in the final layout and features.
Mahon Park was chosen as a suitable location for a temporary skate park after the Lonsdale Skatepark was closed on March 28 to facilitate the construction of the new Harry Jerome Community Recreation Centre.
As part of the new rec centre build, a new skate park is to be completed by 2025; however, during construction there would have been no skate park within city boundaries.
Outcry among the skateboarding community and city families who used to frequent the park forced council to apologize to the skateboarding community for lack of communication and the impact the scheduled closure had on the community.
The Mahon skate park, on the west side of Mahon Park, will have features and space for skaters of all abilities in a street-focused design, and includes a massive granite ledge, granite benches and barriers from local Vancouver skate company, RDS (Red Dragon). @thereddragons
The park, which is being constructed in an L-shape format, will also have a quarter pipe, a long flat rail, and a hip with gap on the west side. On its north side, the park will have the barrier wall, a manny pad, a fire hydrant and a kicker to ledge, among other features.
Charlie Carey is the North Shore News's Indigenous and civic affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
ccarey@nsnews.com
twitter.com/careycharlie_
Interested in getting a Granite Bench donated and delivered to your local public skatepark? Click the link: RDS GRANITE BENCH PROGRAM