Sound Impact

From Portland Parks and Recreation Skatepark Plan 2008 (pp. 12-13):

One concern identified by community members is the potential noise that a skatepark would generate. However, several recent noise studies, including those done by the City of Portland’s Noise Control Officer, have shown that skatepark use produces comparable noise to the measured ambient sound levels that already exist in parks, and it is not generally as noisy as a baseball field, or a basketball court.

These studies have indicated that skateboards produce intermittent noise: noise that occurs occasionally from the ‘popping’ tails and ‘grinding’ of the aluminum trucks (the axle of a skateboard) on the steel coping surfaces sometimes found at the location where vertical and horizontal surfaces meet. These skateboarding sounds are not sustained over long periods of time and are often attenuated by the distance that they are placed from the closest neighbors.

Therefore, appropriate placement is one very effective mitigation strategy. Another approach used by PP&R is the careful selection of parks that exist in louder ambient environments. Distances from 200 - 250 feet will normally allow the recorded skateboard noises to meet the normally permitted daytime sound level (decibels-55 dBA Fast measurement) in residentially zoned neighborhoods in Portland.

The recommended 200-ft. radius drawn around the proposed skatepark site

Note that a 200-ft. radius around the proposed site of the skatepark does not touch any of the adjacent property lines.