New sports facilities open at Nipomo Park, long-planned skate park moving closer to being built

NIPOMO, Calif. - San Luis Obispo County has opened up brand new sporting facilities at Nipomo Community Park.

On Friday morning, county leaders held a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of new basketball courts, soccer court and renovated pickleball/tennis courts.

The new courts are the first major additions to the popular park in many years, and brings the county closer to fulfilling the mission and goals of County Parks, as well as the Nipomo Community Park Master Plan.

"It's great," said San Luis Obispo County Parks Director Nick Franco. "That's what we wanted to do. There was a Master Plan done a number of years ago for Nipomo Community Park, and being able to start implementing those facilities feels really good, and to be able to give these courts to the kids and community is really what we love to do. It's awesome to open them up today."

The basketball facility features two separate playing surfaces, including one that doubles as a soccer court.

The courts are surrounded by fencing, and are open daily from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.

They also include lighting and adjustable backboards on the main court.

They are the first full-length basketball courts open to the public outside of local schools within the entire Nipomo area.

"This is huge for the community," said Jeff Long, Executive Director of Nipomo Area Recreation Association. "Now that we have these, it's awesome. It's very needed. We've got a group of maybe 15 to 25 kids that, on a consistent basis, want to play basketball on a nightly basis, and now they have somewhere that's regulation, that's safe, that is an actual basketball court, with glass backboards and it's really good for our community."

While the basketball courts opened for public use two weeks ago, Friday marked the debut of the pickleball courts.

Previously, pickle ball was played using temporary netting on the tennis courts, which also included a makeshift basketball court.

"It's huge," said pickleball player John Wallace. "We were playing on old courts with temporary nets, that had to be set up and taken down every time we played. And now, we have all these permanent nets out here, which means, during the day and during the week, anyone can come play here."

Now the area includes four permanent pickleball courts, plus a singles-only tennis court that can be converted into two temporary pickleball courts.

"It makes a big difference," said Wallace. "Having something new, it attracts people. People want to play with permanent nets because it's a better game."

As the county celebrates the completion of the new facilities, it's also looking ahead to finishing the long-planned skate park.

According to Franco, funding for the project is nearly secured.

"We have the permits for that," said Franco. "We have the funding almost completely secured for that. We're pretty sure we're going to get all of our funding that we need. Once that's secured, we believe beginning of early 2021, then we'll actually go out to bid for the construction of that, and hopefully start construction sometime in 2021."

He said the facility, which will be built next to the Nipomo Library along Tefft Street, could be finished within a year.

"To see it in a year would be great," said Lynn Compton, San Luis Obispo County Fourth District Supervisor. "It just takes things a while to get through government, and I'm looking forward to that and I know a lot of kids are too."

In a release, San Luis Obispo County said the courts were built following a 2018 recreational needs assessment.

The multi-year project was completed for $560,000 using County Parks reserve funding and development impact fees.

Additional facilities could be coming to the park in the future.

"There's many things that are in the Master Plan, and they can go to our website and look at the Master Plan, and see all of the various things," said Franco. "We don't have anything active right now, but we'll see what the community wants next after the skate park."

Click here to view the Nipomo Community Park Master Plan