Florida Bill Could Remove Requirement For Waivers At City Skateparks

By Matt Wiley

A Florida legislator wants to encourage cities to build more skateparks. His solution? Get rid of parental consent waivers, which currently are required for most skateparks across the state, including at the New Tampa Skatepark, located at the New Tampa Rec Center on Commerce Park Blvd. in Tampa Palms.

Already through two committees in the Florida House of Representatives, HB 365 eliminates the requirement for cities to collect written consent waivers from the parents of skateboarders who are under the age of 18 to use a skatepark. However, not much will change at the New Tampa skatepark.

“This bill is going to absolve municipalities of the burden of getting signed consent forms from parents to grant (the municipalities) the benefit of liability immunities given to them by the state,” says the bill’s author, Florida House Dist. 74 Rep. Julio Gonzalez (R-Venice). The Florida statute in question, 316.0085, gives sovereign liability to cities only if they collect the consent waivers.

“So that you can’t sue them,” Rep. Gonzalez says.

It’s important to note that the bill doesn’t address helmets and won’t change any existing rules or regulations at Florida’s established skateparks, including the New Tampa park.

“Because the New Tampa skatepark is attached to the New Tampa Rec Center, nothing will change with the facility collecting waivers,” says the City of Tampa Parks & Recreation athletic facilities manager Heather Erickson. “(The Rec Center) is a ‘pay-to-play’ facility. So, using the skatepark is like using the gymnastics equipment.”

Erickson says that the waivers also help the staff keep track of who’s coming and going through the facility.

“If it was a freestanding skatepark, it would be different,” Erickson says.

When the law originally was written, Rep. Gonzalez explains, it was in the hope that cities would build more skateparks, but it required signed waivers for minors if they wanted to be granted immunity from liability if a skater was injured on city property. Gonzalez says that many cities chose to avoid the risk altogether by simply not building any parks. Others decided to build parks, fence them, staff them and only let in skaters (of all ages) who had the required signed consent.

“That makes it more difficult for kids to access (the parks),” Rep. Gonzalez says. “It goes against the spirit of the law and it increases the costs (for the municipalities).”

Gonzalez hopes that the bill will help push the state toward the “California model” of skateparks: free and open. Many “free and open” skateparks have recently opened around Tampa Bay, including in Bradenton, Lakeland and in nearby Zephyrhills, located just a few miles northeast. However, the two newest Hillsborough County skateparks built in Apollo Beach and Jackson Springs still follow the staffed, fenced model.

“It says, very specifically, to the municipalities, ‘Look, you don’t have to get waivers signed anymore if you want to build a park,’” Gonzalez explains. “You can make it open-access and not have to worry about being sued, such as you would see with basketball courts or tennis courts.”

During the past several years, Winter Park-based Team Pain Skateparks (which also built the New Tampa skatepark) has built more than five new skateparks around Tampa Bay, two of which have been fenced and staffed.

“It kind of bums us out when we know that a fence is going to be put up (around a park we build),” says Tito Porrata, lead designer and sales rep for Team Pain. Porrata adds that he also hopes that the bill is passed and helps push Florida cities toward building more open parks.

A good analogy, Porrata says, is surfing at any public beach in the world.

“You just walk down to the water and go surfing,” he explains. “There’s no fence. You don’t have to pay. It’s natural. You just go surf.”

The traditional model for municipal parks and recreation departments in Florida actually drives kids away from skateparks, Porrata says.

“Lots of skaters start in the streets because that’s what’s accessible,” he explains. “But, it’s usually illegal in areas that are attractive to skate. So, a park gets built and then fenced and they have to pay to skate. So, the kids go right back to the streets.”

For more information about HB 365, please visit MyFloridaHouse.gov.