Montgomery Parks will host an in-person and online community meeting from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14, to seek design ideas for a new skate park to be built at Ovid Hazen Wells Recreational Park in Clarksburg. It will be the first of five skate parks built in Montgomery Parks in the coming years, adding to the three existing skate parks in the County.
The in-person meeting will be held in the cafeteria of Hallie Wells Middle School, which is located at 11701 Little Seneca Pkwy in Clarksburg. To join the meeting online, go to MoCoParks.org/OHWSkateZoom.
At the meeting, Montgomery Parks planners and representatives from the private skate park design firm Spohn Ranch will listen to ideas about the design of the skate park.
Spohn Ranch is a California-based firm well-known in the skating community for its unique and contemporary skate park designs.
Pre-registration to join the meeting is optional, but is encouraged. Planners are asking those interested to fill out a form to register and receive future updates.
“Skate parks offer a place for community and activity that is popular, especially with teens and younger adults,” said Montgomery Parks Engineer Brian Lewandowski. “We hope everyone interested in skating or using this new skate park will contribute their ideas to the design process.”
The area of the new Ovid Hazen Wells skate park will be 14,000-15,000 square feet, about the same area as three basketball courts. It will be designed for use by skateboarders, in-line and roller skaters and other non-motorized, wheeled forms of recreation. Construction on Ovid Hazen Wells Skate Park is expected to begin in the summer 2024.
The meeting is the latest step in the Montgomery Parks Skate Park study, an extensive outreach effort to the local skateboarding community. Since July, Montgomery Parks has contacted nearly 1,000 skaters via surveys, online and at in-person events to determine what features they want in the new parks.
The other new skate parks are planned for:
- Wheaton Regional Park
- Long Branch Local Park in Silver Spring
- Newport Mill Local Park in Wheaton
- South Germantown Recreational Park
