Many of the opponents are tennis players who are against the plan to turn two of the six courts into a venue for youth to practice their skateboarding.

"I don't have any objections to the skatepark. It's a good thing for kids," said Los Gatan Tim Gafney. But Gafney does object to town officials' assertion that the courts are regularly underutilized.

"Some guy who says they're underutilized hasn't seen them," Gafney said. According to Gafney, three or four of the courts are used every Friday morning, which does not indicate that they're going unused. "I don't know what fully utilized means to the town council," Gafney added.

Gafney points out that the proposed skatepark would be underutilized during the day on weekdays, when the skateboarders are in school.

"For people to say, 'We can take two courts or more,' that's ridiculous," Monte Sereno resident Don Schmidek said. "The problem is, you can't go there at 1 in the afternoon and say nobody goes there." Plus, "on weekends, if you don't show up by 7 or 7:30, forget it," Schmidek said—the courts are usually so full that there's a line to use them.

Schmidek belongs to a group of approximately 30 retirees who play tennis regularly at rotating locations. "Tennis is probably one of the few sports that those guys participate in," Schmidek said.

According to Gafney, there are few public tennis courts in Los Gatos as is. There are the courts at Los Gatos High School, but students or Los Gatos­Saratoga Department of Community Education and Recreation classes are using them most of the time.

"That seems a shame, to take away the only real public courts," Gafney said.

Tim Boyer, parks and forestry superintendent of the Los Gatos Parks and Public Works Department, says that along with the Blossom Hill courts, the town also maintains one public court at La Rinconada Park.

Youth proponents of a Los Gatos skatepark say, however, that Blossom Hill Park is an ideal location as a temporary spot.

Fisher Middle School student Ryan Honda, 13, says the park is within skating distance of many local schools. "Anywhere close to the schools is good because you could go there after school without driving there," Honda said. "Everybody would enjoy it a lot."

"I do think many, many kids would use it," said Anders Ericsson, 14, a Los Gatos High School freshman. Of converting the tennis courts into a skatepark, Ericsson said, "I don't think anyone would be missing out too much because I rarely see people there."

But both youth say they prefer the town's proposal for a permanent skatepark at Vasona Lake County Park.

The town is in the process of negotiating with the county to swap a piece of land for the skatepark for some town-owned land nearby. In the meantime, the town is looking for a temporary site.

"Right now, I don't care. If we get one, I'm happy. Because if we get a skatepark, it's better than nothing," Honda said.

The Sept. 25 community meeting is from 7 to 8:30 p.m. and takes place at the Blossom Hill School cafeteria. For more information, contact Assistant Town Manager Pamela Jacobs at 408.354.6832.