The design for Pemberton’s long-awaited skateboard park has been largely settled, and planners are pumped about the potential for including features unique in the Lower Mainland and even in Canada.

A final design meeting was held last Monday (July 19), after the late-breaking swell of concerns about the skatepark location near power lines on Lot 12 seemed to have subsided in the face of reiterated support for the site from the Village of Pemberton council and the Pemberton Skateboard Society.

Jim Barnum of Spectrum Skatepark Creations, the designer contracted for the Pemberton project, said the vision for the park is now completely different from the plan prepared last winter, responding to the desires expressed by local skaters at the two most recent design meetings and through the skateboard society’s Facebook group.

The skatepark, which will be roughly 32.8 metres by 25 metres in size, is set to feature a five- to eight-foot replica kidney pool with a technical, flowing street-like section full of unique elements. The street section will have a three flat three double set, a three set, flat and bank ledges, a barrier-style quarterpipe and a hip with several unique items.

“There are a few things in the park that are very unique and haven’t appeared before in any parks that I’ve seen,” Barnum said.

Having the pool is “the big exciting news,” as it’s a particularly unique feature that people were asking for, said Chris Addario, project manager of the pre-construction phase for the skatepark.

“There’s only one other one like it in the Lower Mainland,” he said.

Barnum said he only knows of three pools in skateparks across the country, so the Pemberton plan is “unique to really all of Canada.”

The park will be “entirely different from any of the other parks in the corridor,” Barnum said.

Addario said engineering work is underway, and “construction has to be completed by the time the snow flies.” The construction contract will go to tender soon, he said, and he hopes to see work start by mid-September.

The last two design meetings had shown people were “pretty excited” about the revised plans, Addario added. If people have other ideas or input to offer, Barnum still wants to hear it, Addario said, but late changes are harder to make and more expensive.

Barnum is continuing to research the possibilities for mitigating the electromagnetic fields at the skatepark site, across Cottonwood Street from the new community centre. He has been talking to engineering consultants who specialize in that, in response to the concerns raised in recent weeks over potential health impacts of putting the park near the power lines.

“It’s a really emotional issue for everyone involved, and for myself,” Barnum said, as he has friends and family living in the area who would use the Pemberton skatepark.

Some have expressed serious concerns about the potential health impacts due to EMF levels at the skatepark site. But at the July 7 council meeting, officials received a letter from Dr. Paul Martiquet, the region’s medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, saying the benefits of physical activity “far outweigh the risks of exposure to EMF radiation sources.”

Annikka Snow, a longtime Pemberton Skateboard Society volunteer, told council in early July that the group was grateful to be given a site after a difficult search through the limited options in Pemberton, and had gone through several years of debate over the issues and fundraising and planning efforts to get to this point.

The skatepark needs to be finished by March 31, 2011, to take advantage of federal and provincial government stimulus funding grants of up to $245,236 — two-thirds of the funding for the project, with the other third coming from local fundraising efforts by the skateboard society. Whatever the society can raise will be matched by the grants, up to the stated limit.

Village staff said chances were slim of being able to change the location and prepare another site in time to meet that deadline.

Fundraising efforts are continuing, including an art show scheduled for Saturday night (July 31). See the Whistler This Week section of The Question for further details.