New skate park plan causing controversy in Capitola

The Capitola City Council approved the city’s second skate park Thursday, but they now have a lawsuit standing in their way. A group of neighbors and community members named “Friends of Monterey Park” are the ones suing. The group started the process last month and what they are challenging is the city’s approval of the project.

“We are just baffled by why our city council is doing this,” said Marilyn Warter, a member of Friends of Monterey Park.

When Warter first heard the idea about a small skate park being built in Monterey Park she thought it was kind of a cool idea even though it would be nearby her house.

“Most of said we wouldn’t mind and unfortunately that was big mistake,” said Warter.

A Big mistake, she said, because the city council didn’t approval a 2,000 square foot park like she’d hoped.

“All of sudden we’ve got this skate park plan and it is 6,000 square feet,” said Warter.

Warter told KION that she went to city council meetings to try to get her voice heard but said no one was listening to her or her neighbors.

“So we scraped up some money and hired an attorney because we felt like we had no other option, they weren’t listening to us,” said Warter.

That lawsuit, filed by the group, means for now the skate park plan is on hold.

“That case is on-going so we are really in a ‘wait-and-see’ mode to see what happens with that case,” said Rich Grunow, the city of Capitola’s community development director.

Noise, crime and the fact that there is already another skate park in town were all concerns that council looked at, according to Grunow, but in the end they determined that project would be good of the city.

“The majority decided that it had more pros than cons,” said Grunow.

One of those pros is that the construction and planning of the park will be privately funded by Capitola resident Richard Novak who was made famous for his Santa Cruz skate board brand.

That donation is something that resident Tessa Tuttman said it a great gift for the community.

“This is a healthy idea and I hope it goes through,” said Tuttman.

Meantime, Warter and her group said they aren’t giving up and that they wish that it didn’t have to be this way.

“We are going to keep fighting but we are sad,” said Warter.

In the lawsuit, the Friends of Monterey Park are also challenging an environmental report.