Review plans for Loomis Depot Park

The Loomis Town Council has approved a new park by the Train Depot. The plans look great, with swings, play structure, shade, lawn area and has potential to be a asset to our community--especially for families.

Recently the Town Council has approved plans for the new park. Included in these plans is a "skate park" and eliminated from the plans was a "water park" feature that was considered.

The concern of several law enforcement and safety officers, is that the skate park is planned to be behind buildings and out of the general public view. Other communities that have had similar skate parks have had numerous problems with drugs, under age drinking, gangs, violence, graffiti, and of course, the naturally occurring injuries. Many of those communities have torn out their skate parks at a great expense to the taxpayers.

Successful skate parks are in high visible areas, fenced off with hours of operation and supervision. The Loomis approved skate park will not have these safety features and it is strongly recommend that the Town Council restudy the location for the skate park and develop a location with the needed visibility and safety in mind.

This petition is NOT anti-skate park, it is anti-poor planning. The way the Depot Park is planned at this time, it combines young families with unsupervised older children and young adults.

The better option is to add the water park feature back into the project. Combined with the location and the other park features the park would be very family friendly. This would be a great gathering place to be on hot summer days, even on those days when it's too hot to go to the park.

Although the park plan has been approved, it is NOT TOO LATE TO CHANGE.