User groups pleased with Fredericton City Council’s decision to keep all-wheel plaza downtown

Skateboard and other all-wheel sport user groups are pleased with the Fredericton City Council’s decision to build a new all-wheel sports plaza near the city’s downtown core.

City staff presented their findings from two public consultations held in Fredericton in February. Council voted Monday night to keep the park downtown, based on feedback from user groups.

READ MORE: City of Fredericton still considering downtown all-wheel sports plaza

Skateboard Fredericton Inc. spokesperson Rodney Mann said he’s thrilled the city will be collaborating with user groups going forward.

Mann said he and other stakeholders have already put together a working committee that will try and get the park built in 2018, but he said there’s a good chance it won’t be built until 2019.

“The delay is not disappointing in the sense that we’re going to get a park that’s going to be an awesome park, so we just want to take the time and get it right,” Mann said.

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READ MORE: Skateboard association hopes to see city build new skate park in downtown Fredericton

Mann said the location that the city had been looking at near the Small Craft Aquatic Centre near the water is still an option if the design is adjusted so that it won’t interfere with underground pipes.

“The Small Craft Aquatic Centre, the issues that they brought up are definitely issues. We knew about them for a while, that’s why we were concerned about the timing and the rhetoric and everything that was coming out, but the Small Craft Aquatic Centre is still on the table, as well as many other sites that we’re going to be located downtown,” Mann said.

He said users would be happy with a site near the down core, outside of what the city deems as the “downtown.” He said that’s going to allow city staff to broaden the scope and look at sites that perhaps weren’t initially considered.

“I’m feeling like a pig on a mud farm on a rainy day,” Mann said. “We are so happy. This is what vindication must feel like and it’s just such a rare feeling it’s almost surreal, but we are really like, as a group, just elated with the news that city council is committed to working with us and making the park a success, just like we are.”

According to city documents, 103 out of 108 feedback forms filled out by stakeholders during public consultations indicated that users preferred to see the new park built downtown.