Virginia Beach Parks & Recreation partnered with HRSD to deliver a groundbreaking project for a multi-use facility that serves our community's needs, regional infrastructure demands, and cost-sharing on park renovations that will save taxpayer dollars.
Virginia Beach Parks & Recreation (VBPR) is part of a strategic, mutually beneficial partnership with HRSD that brought exciting changes to Woodstock Park! This $32 million groundbreaking program delivered a multi-use facility that serves both Virginia Beach's community needs and the region's infrastructure demands.
By combining these facilities, HRSD fulfilled its regulatory commitments and VBPR improved a popular recreational facility sooner for residents and community members.
During this two-year project, HRSD and Virginia Beach Parks & Recreation renovated Woodstock Park, including the pavilions, parking, park restroom, and playground and built a cutting-edge skate facility for all skill levels on top of a 5.2 million gallon offline wet weather storage tank.
Building an underground tank in this area of Virginia Beach allows HRSD to safely hold excess wastewater and rain/groundwater in the system until elevated conditions in the sewer system subside. The partnership also allowed VBPR to carry out significant park renovations simultaneously and share the costs with HRSD, ultimately saving taxpayer dollars.
Virginia Beach is home to beginner, intermediate, and professional-level skateboarders and bike riders who are passionate about their sport. The community's input was crucial in the development of this skate park, which began construction in September 2020 and was completed in June 2021.
As you enter from the parking lot into the main entrance, the skate park experience begins on the lower level of this 30,000-square-foot skate park. This level features a well-rounded mix of transitional and street elements.
The street course area contains features like custom ledges, rails, hips, wall rides, an A-frame ledge, and a long-curved transition wall catering to all skill levels and disciplines of riders.
This area is highly visible and includes shade structures for viewing and resting, as well as native plantings. You can also access the back area of this level and the upper-level street course using the connector sidewalk, without crossing the rideable area and interrupting the users. This area includes shaded viewing spots and features an intermediate to high-level rail, stair sets, a quarter pipe with extension, banks, and a ledge that runs from the top level down to the second level.
ADA-compliant access and stairs provide access to the upper level of the park. The upper level is wide open for warming up, flat skating, and performing technical tricks. This level features unique skateable art pieces, a bank to ledge, a china bank with hip, and varying flat ledge and flat rail setups.
There is an additional entrance to this level and the snake run and bowl areas as you enter from the north side of the parking lot via sidewalk and stairs.
Combining public input and survey data, Team Pain designed a two-level bowl with a waterfall, five corners, and two hips. It is 5 1/2 to 6 feet tall in the shallow end and 9 feet tall in the deep end featuring tile and pool coping all the way around.
The snake run starts at the upper level and winds down the side of the park through a 4 to 5-foot elevation change featuring five different hips to hit, ending in a 6-foot deep bowl with extensions on both sides. Public input helped shape the snake run based on the flow and speed desires of local park users.
City Council approved the addition of lights to the Woodstock Skate Park using the American Rescue Plan Act(ARPA) funds. The MUSCO LED lighting system will be installed this spring. During the summer, the longer daylight hours allow skaters to use the park until about 9 p.m. .
The lighting system will extend the use of the skate park until 9 p.m. during the seasons of the year with shorter daylight hours. The lights will be off when no skate park users are present and will be off after 9 p.m., nightly.
