Bennington Skatepark

Challenge

In 2023, the Town of Bennington and the Bennington Skatepark Committee partnered to develop a 16,000-sf skatepark at Rotary Park, featuring a concrete run, bowls, and elements for skateboards, bikes, and scooters. Our team provided site design in collaboration with Grindline Skateparks. The project was made possible through the efforts of community development and town staff, public works, Select Board members, local advocates, and funding from various sources, including the town's federal ARPA grant.

Solution

Working together, our design maintained existing bike and pedestrian access through the park while incorporating skatepark-specific constraints. These challenges included protecting culturally significant trees within the park, as well as providing stormwater runoff and drainage control constrained by the nearby river.

We performed a permit review to identify needs for the proposed redevelopment which included local and state floodway plan and requirements, and VT Stormwater Operational permitting. We also worked with the design team to mitigate our environmental impact to the site, helping to streamline the permitting and design timeline. Site survey was conducted to develop a base plan for our partner and to verify the concept plans and provide control points for construction. Our team leaders also attended multiple project and construction planning meetings with the Town for the duration of the design and review phase.

Results

Construction has completed and the park opened to the public in September 2025. This 16,000 sf park is one of the three largest parks in Vermont, similar in size to one in Manchester and comparable to a 20,000-sf park in Burlington. It is open for use by skateboarders, in-line skaters, scooter and small bicycle riders.