ST. GEORGE — Two years ago, an 11-year-old skateboarder asked Washington City officials to build a park catering to skateboarding and other wheel-based sports. He returned Wednesday to see the result of that request – concept designs for the Washington City Wheel Park, a 14-acre facility designed to cater to skaters and cyclists alike.

“I couldn’t have had any higher hopes,” CJ Nielson said as he stood before the Washington City Council. “This is crazy in the way it’s happened so fast.”

To be located near the future interchange of 3650 South and the Southern Parkway (state Route 7) in Washington Fields, preliminary designs for the Wheel Parks were displayed on stands in the City Council chambers and drew a mix of surprise and excitement from the council members and city staff.

The park is slated to have a large skateboard area featuring spots for park and street plaza-based skating. It will also have BMX pump tracks and dirt tracks for cyclists, as well as a Ninja Warrior-style obstacle course and 40-yard dash, a splash pad, playground and a 12-foot tall, W-shaped climbing cube placed in the center of the park.

“We’re blown away with this,” Mayor Kress Staheli said. “This is a real exciting project to be a part of.”

It is an overarching focus of the park to be accessible to anyone, which is why traditional park facilities have been included in the design. Parts of the BMX and stake segments of the park are also designed for beginner and professional use.

The overall activity area of the proposed park is estimated at 190,000 square feet with plans for expansion.

“It’s going to be an amazing facility,” said Aaron Spohn, who has made a 30-year career of designing skate parks and has been skateboarding since age 12 years. “This park is going to be a destination. It’s pretty exciting.”

Spohn’s company, California-based Spohn Ranch, has built skate parks across the country, including several in northern Utah. His company also built the skate park portion of the Ivins City Unity Park.

Spohn was present at Wednesday’s council meeting to highlight the proposed, yet preliminary design concept for the Wheel Park. In addition to the amenities already mentioned, he detailed how parts of the park are designed with athletic training and competitions in mind.

The skate park segment is being designed in consultation with World Skate, an international skating group, to be a competition-caliber course and possible qualifier for Olympic-bound skaters.

“(Skateboarding) is no longer looked at as a fad,” Spohn said when he spoke with St. George News. “It’s looked at as a legitimate sport.”

Of the many parks his company has designed, Spohn said the Wheel Park was fairly unique due to its focus on skaters and cyclists of all skill levels.

“They’re creating something that will cater to a lot of different people,” he said. “That is really nice to see.”

The people who use such parks tend to be an incredibly diverse crowd, he added. You can have casual skaters to those athletes training for their next events. Many girls and women are involved in wheeled sports as well. Wheelchair-based skaters have also come on the scene.

Spohn said the level of community and local government support for the project was also encouraging and will help see it through to completion.

“It takes the support of not only the council, but the community as a whole in order to make a project like this come to fruition,” he said. “From what I’ve seen so far, the support is there.”

The only voice of concern related to the park came from Councilman Craig Coats, who wondered if the city had enough funding for everything proposed for the park. If not, he suggested the park be built in phases. Aside from that, however, Coats said he was impressed with the project.

“I really like the plan,” Coats said. “It’s way more impressive than what I have foreseen.”

The park is slated to run the city around $10 million to build, which will be paid for through impact fees.

Barry Blake, the city’s leisure services director, said he believed the city had the required funding available, yet added the city will most likely also seek grants and other alternatives to help cover the costs of the park’s construction. Funding for the park was previously listed in the city’s pending 2023 budget.

Once built, maintenance on the park is projected to run $50,000 annually.

Championing the project from the start has been Councilman Kurt Ivie. Two years ago he was CJ’s school teacher and encouraged him to go before the council with his request for a skate park. While Ivie has since retired from teaching, his commitment to Wheel Park has remained consistent.

“That concept, it really resonated with me,” Ivie said. “First and foremost, it has to be a great city park. … As it goes forward we hope it will become a regional destination.”

Ivie also noted that the park will be built on land donated to the city by two area residents. The city gained 15 acres for the project between the two donors.

Near the end of the presentation, both Spohn and Blake said the presented park design was conceptual and subject to revision as the process moved forward.

“There are a lot of things yet to come with this design,” Spohn said. “We’re just scratching the surface of what we can do.”

Barring issues related to the inflation of construction and materials and lingering supply chain disruptions, Blake said he hopes to see the park completed by late 2023.

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