Editorial: More than a tribute, skate park shows power of partnership

Corte Madera’s opening of its new skate park at Town Park is a terrific and fitting example of a private/public partnership.

The town provided the template – its old skate park – and the Scotty Lapp Foundation, named for a local teen who lost his life in a skiing accident, provided the design and funding.

Town Park is a fitting location because it is in a central location and accessible from around the county.

Traditionally, the park has drawn regional use.

Its design was the product of extensive community outreach. Its use –  by skateboarders, scooter riders and bicyclists – provides another way for local youth to get outdoors and get some health exercise.

Scotty Lapp was a competitive skier, who also enjoyed skateboarding. His enthusiasm for challenging sports has been an inspiration for the new skate park and other recreation projects aimed at making them more accessible to more kids.

His family lived in Tiburon. Growing up, Scotty and his brother Ryan spent a lot of time skateboarding at the Corte Madera skate park until 2021 when they moved to Tahoe City so the brothers could be part of competitive skiing teams. The accident took place in 2022.

In Scotty’s memory, his family and friends launched a foundation aimed at building recreation projects with the aim of making them more accessible to more youth.

Many of the youth using the new skate park today remember skating with Scotty at the old park that lacked many of the ramps, steps, rails and obstacles – for all ages and abilities – built into the new park.

The park cost $600,000 to design and build and the foundation still needs to raise about 10% of the money.

California Skateparks, a contractor that worked on the skate park at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the Skatepark Project, which counts skateboarding icon Tony Hawk among its partners, designed and built the new park.

The skate parks are not only a place for fun. They are where young athletes work to build their physical proficiency and skills.

It’s estimated that youth interest in skateboarding has grown by more than a third since 2019. As part of the foundation’s planning, its community outreach showed that among those interested in using the skate park, two-thirds were ages between 11 and 20. There was also a sizable number aged 21 to 30.

The design and project won the Town Council’s approval in September.

The completion of construction may set a record for civic improvements.

The old park played an important part in Scotty’s life and the new park promises to play a similar role for youth today and in the future.

It is an ambitious and fitting tribute to a young man whom a friend described as “rad.” That passion appears to be built into the new park.