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CIVIC Rebuffed in Sale of Skateworld
By Amie Hayes
May/June 2019
 Skateworld, San Diego County's only remaining roller rink, was put on the market by CIVIC San Diego in May 2018, as required as part of the state's disbanding of redevelopment agencies; CIVIC's dissolution is imminent. Built in 1943, Skateworld was designated a San Diego historical resource in 2011.
On April 8 the city council heard from the community. Rallied by Natalie Ven and Haley Hauck who started SaveSkateworld.com and Skateworld owners, skaters, the Turnaround Youth Foundation, and the Linda Vista Town Council, along with concerned residents from every council district testified for over an hour.
Despite the overwhelming public consensus, Scott Sherman, Linda Vista's councilmember, motioned to support the staff's recommendation to sell this property to Pacifica Companies for redevelopment. After his motion failed, Councilmember Chris Ward, acting in the community's interest, noted that Skateworld is a "special, [well] used, and unique asset" and that the council still had other options. Ward's motion passed unanimously thereby re-classifying the property as Future Development, and will the city engage the Linda Vista community on next steps.
Skateworld was designated as significant under Criterion A, for development patterns and methods during the WWII era of San Diego' planning and development. Housed in a renovated military structure (an 800 Series Field House), it is a rare local example of military and defense construction adaptively reused for civilian purposes. Also significant under Criterion C, Skateworld retains an excellent level of architectural integrity, specifically its prominent barrel-roof, glue laminated timber trusses, apron wall and vertical wood slat siding at the north elevation, and (boarded) clerestory windows.
Find more information on saving Skateworld HERE.
Photo courtesy City of San Diego California Historical Resources Inventory Database (CHRID)
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