CLAREMONT Comments

Proposed Skate Park To Be Regional Facility........................................

Recently (11/14/07), the City Council voted (Resolution 2007-23) to accept and expend the Land and Water Conservation Fund grant of $20,000 for a proposed site to be called Riverside Park.

The conditions of this award, like all such grants, are such that the park will be open to everyone and cannot be exclusive to Claremont residents.

The preliminary plan submitted with this grant application was neither prepared by the City Planning and Development Department nor any other professional engineer.
These preliminary plans call for six parking spaces and no area overhead lighting or sanitary facilities. A preliminary cost estimate obtained in March of this year places the park cost at $120,000 based on this preliminary plan.

Currently, based upon information obtained through special request from the city managers office, there has been no final approval for enlarging the existing access to Washington St.

Under the present circumstances of this proposed project, it is reasonable to assume the final development costs of Riverside Park will exceed $150,000.

Add to those initial capital costs the annual costs of park security patrol and maintenance for supporting a regional skate facility and one quickly realizes the grant of development funds may not have been a wise choice to improve upon a local situation.

Richard Dietz, Civil Engineer Retired

Roughly six months ago, Claremont’s City Councilor’s decided upon a site for the proposed skate park now being planned in more detail. The site they endorsed was the parcel of land just east of the intersections of Washington, Routes 103, and Broad Streets. Presently, it contains the City’s water pumping station for alternate supply drawn water from the Sugar River.

Why this site, for active recreation, was selected over Monadnock Park is not clear. It doesn’t make much sense from a municipal planning prospective.

First and foremost is user safety. An active skate park facility should not be located immediately adjacent to the busiest street intersection in the City. The adjacent bridge over the river adds additional dangers because of narrow sidewalks bordering all bridges.

Second is traffic safety. Vehicles, especially buses and trucks, traveling thru the intersection should not have the added distraction of children skating or walking to the park while negotiating the intersection. Intersections like this one should be clear of all border distractions such as temporary sidewalk signs, peddlers, flags, bikes, pedestrians, etc.

Third is site access. The current driveway access ramp will need to be widened to two lanes and heightened vertically to achieve an acceptable waiting platform to turn into Washington St. This will increase sight development costs. Adding traffic to the ramp access will aggravate the proximate intersection’s risks.

Forth is site suitability. The site is located adjacent to a river and in" floodway" and "flood plain" designated land belts along the river‘s edge; thus, an internal "natural safety hazard" to children.

The site would be better developed as a "passive" recreational park primarily for a destination area of pedestrians using a "river walk" connecting the newly installed foot bridge to the west. Such a river walk trail system could even be eventually extended westerly to connect the city’s riverside site near the Esersky’s Hardware Store.

The most safe and appropriate location for Claremont’s skate park is Monadnock Park, where parking, lighting, rest room facilities, etc. now exist. and other active recreation is centralized.

Why the administration choose the presently planned site over Monadnock Park should leave the citizens of Claremont with serious doubts as to their "urban planning" awareness.

By Richard F. Dietz, Civil Engineer, Retired

The proposed site for the planned skateboard recreational facility in the City deserves to be analyzed further for a couple of reasons.

First, and foremost, is that the site is predominately in an F-2 Floodway Zone. This is the area along the banks of the Sugar River running through downtown Claremont. It is an area not conducive to any form of development from a safety standpoint due to riverbank flooding. In fact, "structures" are prohibited from the zone as follows:

(4) Storage of materials, supplies and equipment.

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Second, from a vehicle traffic vs. pedestrian traffic (safety) potential conflict planning prospective, the site rates extremely poorly. Good city planning dictates that the latter two modes should be separated as much as possible. From this aspect, locating the skate park adjacent to one of the busiest intersections in the City is a poor design and unsafe.

Let's hope that the city site planners will see the proposed site as a poor one, if not illegal, and a better choice is selected.