ENCINITAS — The City of Encinitas has begun accepting applications for a committee tasked with generating ideas for skateboarding features throughout the city.
The Skate Feature Committee would comprise 10 members — a mix of skaters and non-skaters alike — as well as city staff and two members of the City Council.
Four of the 10 members would come from voting districts throughout the city, with the remaining seats serving at-large. If a district does not receive an applicant, that seat would convert to an at-large seat.
Deputy Mayor Jim O’Hara said the goal is to build a coalition of residents that can come up with interesting, creative ideas for skate features throughout the city, not just at existing parks.
“I think we’re looking at whatever space makes sense around the city — that the city, its residents, the skate community, everybody will benefit from,” O’Hara said. “It may not be a park, it may be a space that fits outside of the box that we think of.”
He added that the effort would be a way to recognize the local culture.
“We’re a community and part of that community, whether you own a skateboard or don’t — I’m never getting a skateboard in my life with my back — everybody here knows Bryce Wettstein and Tony Hawk, right?” O’Hara said at the May 13 council meeting. “And most of us adore those people and think they’re pretty incredible. They’re part of our culture. If we were to identify somebody famous from our city, we might mention one of them.”
He added that issues discussed might include sound mitigation and other concerns related to the location and scope of any project identified.
City Manager Jennifer Campbell said that, given the differences in the design and permitting processes depending on where a feature would be located, she would recommend prioritizing the identification of a location.
Councilmember Luke Shaffer said skateboarding has played an important role in his life and that he would always bring a board with him when deployments allowed.
“It’s a place of meditation for me when I’m not in this place I call home and have called home my whole life,” Shaffer said.
He added that, unlike traditional team sports, skateboarding has a way of bringing together people who might not normally interact.
“It’s one of those things where you can see 7-year-olds and you can see soon-to-be-70-year-olds skating together,” Shaffer said. “You don’t typically see that across other sports.”
During the discussion, Councilmember Joy Lyndes and Mayor Bruce Ehlers raised concerns about costs.
Lyndes said that because a skate feature was not included in the master plan or strategic plan, she worried the city might not have its “ducks in a row.”
“If we were a city that only had to make decisions about skateboarding, then this would be easy because I embrace skateboarding,” she said. “I think it’s a really important part of our community and our history and our legacy and what people enjoy here in our community. But we’re not. We have so many other fiscal responsibilities and priorities.”
Ehlers said that mandating private funding could result in a situation similar to the Community Center without its pool.
“I would point out that if we do go down this path and we require that it be privately funded, there’s a chance that as Council Member Lyndes pointed out, the expense will be greater and it’ll be hard to get it,” he said. “It would have to be a marquee location in order to really get people behind it.”
Ehlers expanded on Lyndes’ point by noting the mix of priorities facing the city as it decides how best to use available funds.
“I want to make sure we’re not committing any general funds,” he said. “I’ll just go on record. I won’t commit general funds to fund this until we get our ‘need to haves’ funded at a better level.”
In response, O’Hara said the committee would not have a private funding mandate to avoid preventing possible solutions down the line. He added that the creation of the committee did not come with any earmarked funds for projects, but was instead an effort to gather ideas from the community in an organized manner.
“I’m going to support this tonight because it’s not about funding,” Ehlers said. “But when it comes back for future funding discussion, it’s going to be ‘need to have’ versus ‘want to have.’”
The City Council unanimously voted to create the committee across the parking lot from the City Hall sign, above a paved hill that skateboarders have dropped from for decades.
Shaffer pointed out that the Vons shopping center, the former 7-Eleven parking lot, the stairs at Pacific View and the gutter at Glen Park had all been hot spots for the local skating community.
“What I’m trying to say is people found places to go skate,” he said. “I think that it’s time to bring the skate culture, at least in our community, out to the forefront and give it its due.
“Skating was born in the counterculture. It was born, it was pushed into the corners, pushed into, ‘do it on your own time.’ It still kind of lives in that because that’s where it existed for so long.”
Exposure Skate
Earlier at the same meeting, the City Council also voted unanimously to approve a Memorandum of Understanding with Exposure Skate for its annual competition.
The Vista-based nonprofit dedicated to female and nonbinary skateboarders hosts learn-to-skate events in addition to its flagship competition.
Exposure had said rising city fees might have prevented it from hosting future competitions in Encinitas.
The MOU includes more than $17,000 in support from the city. That support includes the special event permit fee, refuse removal costs, restroom services and ambulance costs, all of which were individually valued at more than $1,000, according to city documents.
The 2025 event featured an estimated attendance of more than 4,100, according to the documents.
“I want to call this out as using our existing facilities, but yet being a high-level promotion of what a wonderful skate destination we are but also how it benefits women and girls,” Lyndes said. “It’s so notable, and I’ve enjoyed attending. I am not a skater, but I think it benefits people way outside of the skating community.”
