Construction of new Colwood skate park to go ahead after $627K funding from Ottawa

A rendering of the proposed skatepark is shown: (Westshore Skatepark Coalition)

A long-awaited skate park will soon be built in the Colwood, B.C., area now that the federal government has agreed to contribute $627,151 to the project.

The City of Colwood and the Westshore Skateboarding Coalition have been campaigning to build a skate park in the area for years, after the West Shore's only skateboarding facility shut down seven years ago.

In March, Colwood council agreed to budget $650,000 for the project, which is roughly half the project's $1.3-million budget.

The municipality then applied for funding from the federal government to fund the rest of the project.

In an announcement Wednesday, the federal government said it greenlit the funding.

"Community amenities like skate parks provide spaces for people of all ages to build skills, take part in healthy activities and build friendships," said Harjit S. Sajjan, federal Minister of International Development in a statement Wednesday.

The skate park will be about 13,000 square feet and include amenities for skateboarding, cycling, rollerblading and scootering.

The surrounding area will also include new safety lighting, park furniture and upgraded public bathrooms.

"Since October 2015, our Westshore communities of almost 84,000 residents, have been missing a key piece of recreational infrastructure for our youth," said Kyara Kahakauwila, board chair of the Westshore Parks and Recreation Society.

"We are now able to move forward with our plans to create a 13,000 square foot multiuse space for our youth in collaboration with the users and our collective communities," she said.

There's no timeline for when the new skate park will open. In March, the Westshore Parks and Recreation Society said it would only finalize construction plans once funding had been secured.