Skaters fight for skate plazas in Loudoun

Now, some of them are doing something to try to create legal places for them to go.

"Our idea is to create a skate plaza," said 19-year-old Steve Jefferson of Sterling. "It's not really a skate park. There will be no ramps, and it's not fenced in. It's more of a public plaza for skaters and public use."

A skate plaza is a place made for skateboarding that doesn't necessarily look like it was.

Two years ago, Jefferson launched the Loudoun County Skate Project, an effort to bring a legal skating area to eastern Loudoun County, specifically Sterling.

The one skate park that exists now in the county, Catoctin Skatepark in Leesburg, is small, Jefferson said, and it doesn't include the streetscape type of obstacles he and his friends enjoy skating.

He envisions a park area, similar to Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., that would include open space lined with concrete for skating and obstacles like stairs, ledges and handrails that skaters love.

"There will be public amenities like benches and sidewalks too," Jefferson said. "It would be for anybody, but it's made for skateboarding."

In Purcellville, parents and skaters have gotten together to fight for a similar park there, said Dolly Stevens, a member of the Purcellville Skate Project whose son Robbie Tootle, 15, is a skateboarder.

"The bottom line is street skaters aren't going away. The only solution is to give them a place to do it," she said. "If you have a town without a skate plaza, your town becomes the skate plaza."

The type of skateboarding area proposed by Jefferson in Sterling and the Purcellville group is the same.

At this point in the process, Jefferson and Stevens both said they are confident the plazas will eventually come to fruition.

Jefferson has been meeting with representatives of the Loudoun County Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services, and a county-owned piece of property in Sterling looks like it will be a suitable location for his project, he said.

Jefferson said the county would not allow him to reveal the location of the property being considered, but he said now it is an unused grassy field and would be an ideal spot for his vision of a skate plaza.

In Purcellville, the town has talked about considering Fireman's Field as a possible location, Stevens said.

Jefferson has a general idea for the design for the Sterling park, and he's working with contractors to determine pricing.

Stevens said the typical skate plaza costs $40 per square foot. The project she has in mind would ideally be at least 10,000 square feet.

All of the funds for both plazas would have to be collected through fundraising, but businesses and local community members seem supportive, Stevens and Jefferson said.

In Purcellville, fundraising has not yet begun.

For the Loudoun Skate Project, fundraising is a big part of what is planned for 2008. Jefferson wants to launch several projects under the title "For a skate park." For example, "Recycle for a Skate Park" would involve collecting used skateboards to break into pieces to make small key chains out of the wood. "Party for a Skate Park" would involve Jefferson and his friends performing skate demos for children's' birthday parties.

Another idea is a fashion show involving local skaters and skateboarding clothes, Jefferson said.

For more information about the Sterling effort, visit www.loudouncountyskateproject.com. For more on the Purcellville project, go to www.pvilleskateproject.com.

Contact the reporter at ecoe@timespapers.com