Instead, Los Gatos will scratch the idea of a temporary skatepark altogether and focus on constructing a permanent site at Vasona Lake County Park.

At the Sept. 25 community meeting, the Blossom Hill Park proposal drew the ire of neighbors, tennis players and local skateboarders. All three groups insisted that the tennis courts were inappropriate for a skatepark.

A town-formed ad hoc subcommittee then met a week later to make a decision based on public input.

"In a nutshell, the committee as a whole agreed that information came out that did clarify what the conflicts were," said subcommittee chairman and Los Gatos Councilman Joe Pirzynski. The neighbors have had to accommodate the impacts from different recreational uses of the park, Pirzynski said, and "the skaters themselves are more interested in something a little more elaborate."

"It became clear that there was a need among the tennis community for more courts, there's a need among the skateboarding community for a more permanent site and there's a need for the neighbors not to be impacted any more than they already are," Pirzynski said. "It has removed Blossom Hill Park as an option. It has also removed a temporary park."

"It looks like the tennis courts were not something the community was enthusiastic about, including the skateboarders," said Councilman Steve Glickman, also on the subcommittee.

Chuck Easley, a resident of the adjacent Fairmead Lane, said he was relieved and happy to hear of the decision.

"I didn't think it was a good idea in the first place," Easley said. Easley's complaints are that he can already hear the sounds of the different activities from the park, and adding skateboarding noises would create a disturbance for the neighborhood.

But Easley, himself a skateboarder in his youth, said, "there's obviously representation" from the teenagers, who want a skatepark in town. "I'll be just as happy when I hear that they've found a place where they can build one," Easley said.

To Glickman, what was evident from the meeting was that the town needs a skatepark somewhere else, and should proceed with urgency.

The town has been in discussions with Santa Clara County officials since the spring to negotiate a land swap that would give the town ownership of a site in Vasona appropriate for a skatepark, and give the county control of a nearby piece of land.

With the land swap, it would take at least two years for a skatepark to be built. "I think that two years is way too long," Glickman said. "It shouldn't take that long."

Glickman said the town should just pick a spot and try to put a time frame on the process. "We can say to the community, 'Here's what we're going to do,' with some kind of certainty," Glickman said.

The subcommittee also decided to form a youth design group while the land swap negotiations are going on, Pirzynski said. Youth involvement was a suggestion that the town-hired skatepark consultant originally made last year, and the issue came up again at the neighborhood meeting.

Pirzynski said the youth will look at issues such as concrete bowls versus at-grade skate ramps. "We can get the kids started right now to consider what their optimum case would be," Pirzynski said.

The subcommittee, made up of the two council members, two Los Gatos parks commissioners and three town staff members, was charged by the mayor to find a temporary site. Glickman said, however, that even though the job is done, the subcommittee will not disband but "will continue to oversee and try to facilitate the process."

The subcommittee was scheduled to present its findings and make a recommendation to the Los Gatos Town Council Oct. 7.