The South Park community will celebrate the construction of its own skate park later this year; likely before any skate features are built under Seattle's citywide skate park plan.

Adjacent to Cesar Chavez Park, the branch library, and the South Park Community Center, the future River City Skate Park is a true grassroots effort, said Mark Johnson, chair of the River City park steering committee.

All the money, about $167,000, has already been raised. More than half came from Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Matching Funds Grants and other sources include community donations.

Another huge contributor of expertise, time and money has been Grindline, a skateboard design/build contractor headquartered in West Seattle. The company has built parks all over the world, including the one in Ballard, the only skate park currently maintained by the city.

Grindline is known for its generous contributions to community skate park projects.

"(Grindline) is building it for free basically," Johnson said. "They are like the fairy god parents of skate boarding. They are really giving a huge gift to Seattle. It's going to be a world class park."

He estimated that Grindline has contributed more than $30,000 to the project to date and about $200,000 by the time it's completed.

Grindline will also manage and maintain the 10,000 square foot skate park free of charge. There are tentative plans to build an office space on site that would act as Grindline's new headquarters, said Micah Shapiro, Grindline's lead designer.

Grindline's notoriety helped the River City group get a prestigious award from the Tony Hawk Foundation. The project was chosen as one of two out of 400 applications to get a $10,000 grant from the foundation.

"Without (Grindline) we couldn't have gotten that-there's no way," Johnson said.

The park design is still being refined and a grading and drainage permit is in review. Johnson expects construction to start by October for a grand opening sometime in spring of next year.

The park site, "located in the heart of South Park," will be built on land owned by Sea Mar, a non-profit community health center. Part of the center's mission is to support local community projects that are committed to promoting social health and community building.

The empty piece of land that has long been a magnet for illegal garbage dumping will soon be a free, public, concrete skate park that will complete the community's civic center.

But it hasn't been easy to get to this point, Johnson said.

The land is zoned neighborhood commercial-2. City parks and playfields are permitted but a skate park was considered an athletic facility, which had to be built enclosed. It took a lot of convincing, but Seattle's City Council and Department of Planning and Development were persuaded to change the definition to include skate parks.

"We have great support in the neighborhood," Johnson said. "The community has been really aware of everything that's been going on."

And a skate park just makes sense in South Park, said Johnson, noting that the community has the highest youth population compared to other Seattle neighborhoods.

Debbie McNeil, a member of the South Park Neighborhood Association, remembers how the River City Park idea started.

It all began when a few middle school students from West Seattle kept skateboarding at Concord Elementary School. After several warnings, the principal challenged the young boys to create a business plan to build their own skate park.

They did and presented it at a community meeting where it was well received.

"It's a real grass roots thing," McNeil said.

The boys, who are now in college, are credited with helping to fulfill at least some of the need for the estimated 4,000 skateboarders in the West Seattle/South Park area.

"There's 20,000 skateboarders in Seattle and there's only one (bowl)," Johnson said. "But that's going to change."