Things You'll Need:
- Phone
- Computer or pen and paper
- Skate Park design
- Piece of land for the skate park
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Step 1
Decide what kind of skate park it will be. How will it be funded? Is this a private enterprise or a public place? Is the skate park for profit or not? Is it part of the city park system or on privately owned land? You need to answer all these questions so you know what resources you have and who is in charge. Is it an individual venture, a corporate venture, a non-for-profit organization's venture or the city government's venture?
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Step 2
Design the park and get your materials and labor figured out. What do you need for materials, what do you need for labor and who has the equipment and skills to do the labor? If you are doing the work yourself, see if you can get donations of equipment and call on friends and skaters in the area to help.
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Step 3
Talk it up. Network with people all over town. Skate parks can be a valuable part of any community, can bring in new people, generate business and increase tourism. A skate park--well-designed and run--s a great asset for any town. If you're enthusiastic, friendly and interesting, they'll start being enthusiastic, friendly and interested in what you're doing. If you're not a good networker, hate people and hate talking, then muster your courage and talk enough to find some skaters who love your project and have very outgoing, friendly personalities. Get them going on the networking side of things.
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Step 4
Get community support, even if you're funding it yourself. Go to city meetings, meet your aldermen, make an appointment with the City Engineer, City Administrator, the Officer of Economic Development, anybody who will talk to you. Give them a copy of your plans, offer to help in any way you can with other city projects and show them how the skate park is a good thing for the city. Call up your local newspaper or news magazine and see if they will do an interview and article.
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Step 5
Check into coding restrictions, zoning regulations and city ordinances. Part of your meetings (from Step 4) with all those city officials is to get yourself out in the open so you will know if there are any problems ahead. It's better to know the obstacles you face and have people on your side to help you face them than to try to sneak around.
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Step 6
Set up your funding. If you are doing this as a non-profit venture, you need a separate bank account or holding account set up to receive the funds so there is no question of where they are going. Again, the city officials might be able to help you by funneling it through city coffers for the purpose of a skate park. Or local organizations like the Rotary Club, Lodges or Shriners, will often get in on something like this to help youth in the area, and those organizations are usually set up as non-profits already. So figure out how you're going to receive and distribute the money. If you are a for-profit, you may need an LLC set up for tax purposes. Call up your local IRS branch and ask them. They are there to help citizens like you figure this stuff out. (If you hate the idea of talking to an IRS employee, go to the website. There are lots of helpful articles and you can download most of the forms you need.)
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Step 7
Have a fundraiser (if you are not-for-profit) or find some investors (if you are for profit). This is probably the most difficult and time-consuming part of the process. If you've got enough money to finance it on your own, just skip this step and go on to Step 8.
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Step 8
Schedule your material delivery, your laborers, and your equipment. You should be there, at least to get things started, and preferably for the entire time to make sure it is done as you want it to be done. Nobody cares as much as you do, so free up a day or a weekend or more from your schedule, even if you have to spread things out in phases over a month or two.
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Step 9
Announce the opening. Spread the word. Call up your friends in the city government, send an email to everybody you know, notify the newspapers, print up flyers, tell local businesses, put up a sign. You could always have a grand opening event like a skate contest, a local band, and/or a barbecue. First impressions count, so use the big opening as an opportunity to get the community excited about having a skate park and to let skaters in the area know you're there.
