Pro BMXers Address Lake Forest City Council Over Peg Ban at Etnies Skatepark

An unusually high number of flannel shirts, beanies and skate shoes added color to the audience at Tuesday's City Council meeting, where a group of pro and amateur BMX riders and an Etnies representative implored the council to reconsider its earlier move to ban certain kinds of BMX equipment at the city's skate park.

at the , the council unanimously decided Tuesday to ask staffers to gather information and draft a new ordinance modifying skate park rules within 30 days.

Pegs—defined in the proposed city law as "tubes made of aluminum, plastic or other material, which are bolted, attached or otherwise affixed to the front and/or back axles"—have damaged concrete at the skate park, .

But riders in attendance argued that they haven't seen damage at the park and that peg use is essential part of BMX riding, which is becoming increasingly popular.

"The removal of pegs, it's kind of a shock," said Ben Ward of BMX brand Fit Bike Co. "You might as well remove wheels."

Pro BMX bikers Gary Young and Ben Snowden addressed the council, as did the father and grandmother of 12-year-old Tucker Smith of Laguna Hills, who competed on the TV program Next X on the Disney XD channel. All lobbied for pegs to remain and for the park to provide more hours for BMX riding, because the BMX sessions currently available often become overcrowded.

"When I compete, these pegs are an essential part of my competition run," Snowden said. "I think it's important that the kids of Lake Forest to have an equal opportunity to use these pegs while they're riding, while they're having fun, in hopes that they may one day be able to do what I do for a living."

The staff's recommendation to ban pegs is intended to prevent a from becoming damaged, as portions of the park have been since it began allowing BMX riders in 2004. A memo from the city staff to the council depicted areas of the park where BMX pegs were alleged to have taken chunks of concrete. (See photos in the image gallery attached to this article.)

City Manager Robert Dunek told the council that the cost to retrofit the park with metal fixtures that could handle BMX pegs would be at least $200,000—a "prohibitive" amount, he said.

But BMX riders told the council that pegs that were plastic instead of metal would not cause damage. City council members said they wanted the staff to investigate whether that was true.

Etnies senior public relations manager Ashton Maxfield presented the council with a petition that the Lake Forest-based apparel company had circulated online since Friday, with 1,152 names in opposition to the ban.

Mayor Peter Herzog pointed out that the park was originally designed with skaters, not bikers, in mind. Damage caused by BMX riders to park concrete decreases Lake Forest's appeal to organizers of major skate tournaments, he said. And giving BMX riders more time to ride would detract from skateboarders' time, he said.

Moreover, he said, accommodating pegs by retrofitting the park would be expensive.

"I am somewhat disappointed with Etnies, because we have a fee schedule for the operation of the park, and we have been waiving that for years and spending the money to keep it open without any fees at Etnies' request, and now we're being asked to absorb costs," he said. "We thought we had done a great job in servicing the skateboarding community as well as trying to accommodate the BMX community. Quite frankly, I guess I'll just have to re-evaluate that."

Councilman Mark Tettemer said he was open to the idea of retrofitting the park to handle BMX pegs but didn't want the city to shoulder the cost alone.

"Maybe between Etnies and some of the other folks here who seem to have some juice in the BMX world, we might be able to rally the troops to help us," Tettemer said. "Because this is a significant cost, and as you might expect, in this economy, this is a tough time to be biting off big projects."

The council directed staffers to bring back more information about plastic pegs, retrofitting and the potential to increase the amount of time available to BMX riders.