A rendering of the Camden County skatepark, circa February 2023. Credit: NJ Pen.
For Camden County skateboarders, the wait is almost over.
After years of planning, design feedback, and a few false starts, the Camden County government has an anticipated start date for the construction of the Cooper River Skatepark.
Announced in 2022 as a component of its $100-million “Parks Alive 2025” initiative, the park represents the first dedicated skating facility in Cherry Hill since the short-lived Cherry Hill Skatepark closed for good.
In the years since, skateparks have sprung up across New Jersey, including the recently completed Pennsauken Skatepark. The Cooper River facility, set to rise along the 500 block of Park Boulevard, behind Cooper Specialty Care at Cherry Hill, represents the first effort by the county government to create such an amenity for residents and visitors.
Last summer, the county landed an $87,000 Local Recreation Improvement Grant (LRIG) from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs to dedicate towards the project. Nonetheless, bids returned exceeded the project budget.
The work was advertised a second time this spring before Camden County Commissioners awarded the work to Seacoast Construction of East Brunswick at $913,410 in July.
The start of construction will be marked by a groundbreaking ceremony in the first week of October. Once prefabricated elements for the skatepark are completed, work crews will prepare the site, install the structures, and then fill in the rest, said Assistant Camden County Engineer Anthony O’Toole.
Although the work is weather-dependent, Camden County Parks Director Scott Traynor said officials are hoping to cut the ribbon on the completed skatepark by December or January.
Had construction not gotten underway this fall, permits awarded by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection would have expired, delaying the park even more, Camden County Commissioner Jeff Nash said.
“The contract, when we put it out to bid, was over-budget,” Nash said. “We had to reject it, so it went back out to bid. Now the bid was acceptable, we can begin construction.
2022 Camden County Skatepark conceptual rendering. Credit: Camden County.
“I was thrilled that we were able to get the contract awarded because of the time pressures,” the commissioner said.
“It’s been taking forever.”
Camden County Communications Director Den Keashen said the completed project will be “a new asset for the park” that will be meaningful and significant to skaters throughout the region.
“It’s going to be a communal space where everyone can come together,” Keashen said.
“It’s a deserved space for it, too,” he said. “It’s the number-one park in our parks system.”
Seacoast will subcontract specialty work involved in the construction of the park to Spohn Ranch Skateparks of Los Angeles, California.
Jason Baldessari, who works in Skate Park Development for Spohn Ranch Skateparks, described the project as “a street-style skatepark,” that will appear much the same once constructed as it did in the rendering provided to the public in 2022.
The final version of the park will be built without some elements that were “value-engineered down” after bids came in over budget, Baldessari said. The project will no longer feature a central rain garden, nor some of the lighting elements that appeared in the initial design.
Moreover, some of the in-ground elements common to skateparks, like bowls, couldn’t be incorporated in the final design because of the shallow depth of the local water table, he said.
“When you have a site like this, it forces your hand in terms of what you’re able to deliver in terms of design,” Baldessari said. “Even for what we did do there, there’s a certain amount of constraint.
“We didn’t have a budget or a site that’s conducive to doing features that are game-changers,” he said. “Let’s make sure it has all the basics and provides opportunities for skaters.”
The Camden County Skatepark will feature a number of traditional features that are common to skateparks, including quarter pipes, banks, hips, rails, ledges, and Euro gaps. The features are functionally linked to allow skaters to transition from one element to the next.
Some of those skate elements will be precast; others will be poured in place; Spohn Ranch professionals will be on-hand throughout the installation process.
Skaters show up in force to support building a skateboard park in Camden County, Feb. 2023. Credit: Matt Skoufalos.
“The coolest thing about skateboarding is that something as small and basic as a parking curb is something that a first-time skater and a professional can go and mess around with, and they’re both going to have fun, but in different ways,” Baldessari said.
“When you’re a skater, having something like a bench or a ledge is still something to use,” he said. “There’s tons of crossover on the terrain; almost everything that’s in the park at Cooper River can be ridden.”
Audubon resident Ronnie Gordon, who’s been a professional skateboarder for more than two decades, said that the park represents “the excitement of expanding the skate scene in South Jersey,” particularly for Gen-Xers who grew up continuously searching for a place to ride.
“This is absolutely huge for me,” Gordon said. “I started skateboarding in 1986, and the only skateparks available were in Doylestown or Reading, [Pennsylvania], and they were basically unattainable unless you had your parents to drive you there.
“Unless I tried to build something with my father, I had to befriend and beg older guys to let me ride their ramps.”
Gordon’s vocational pursuits followed his skating interests. Working at pizza places and skate shops, he tried to space out his shifts to maximize the amount of time he could spend on a skateboard or traveling to a skatepark.
That led to a career leading summer skate camps, and a 22-year tenure as an industrial arts teaching assistant at Y.A.L.E. School in Cherry Hill, where Gordon’s resourcefulness as a skater lent itself to classroom education on the use of tools and project management.
Skater Alan Gelfand at the Cherry Hill Skatepark in the 1980s. Credit: Glen E. Friedman | Blue Tile Obsession.
Days spent clearing off surfaces to skate more smoothly in all conditions led to years of developing hands-on expertise, he said.
“I don’t know basketball players who dig the court out, or track runners who dig the track out [when it snows],” Gordon said.
“Anyone serious about skateboarding owns a leaf blower, tools, Bondo for patching sidewalks.
“It’s super creative,” he said of skating.
“There’s so many things you can do with it.”
Gordon, who has worked to build up the local skate community through teaching lessons, organizing camps, and participating in contests, stressed the value of building a skatepark in providing a safe space “for somebody who might not be interested in normal sports.”
Those values are shared by Cherry Hill resident Marla Rosenthal, who helped her son Lyle advocate for the community to create a skatepark since his childhood years, and former Camden County Parks Director Maggie McCann Johns, whom Gordon said “need the most credit” for the park becoming a reality.
“They never skateboarded in their life, and they fought for this,” he said. “hat’s amazing that these women fought for this for everyone else. This would never have happened without that [effort].”
