The city of St. Helena Tree Committee is having second thoughts about plans to build the city’s new skatepark in a grassy area of Crane Park.

Members of the committee expressed their concerns to the St. Helena City Council last week, suggesting that building the skatepark in that location might result in the loss of too many shade trees — benefiting few at the expense of many.

“The tree committee recommends that a more thorough study of possible locations be done before the decision is made to create a play area for a small segment of our community to the possible detriment of the rest,” said committee member Marty Oldford.

According to city planner Greg Desmond, who’s overseeing the skatepark plans, one volleyball court and 10 trees would be removed: six liquid ambars, two cedars and two Italian stone pines.

However, the cedars and pines are at the end of their life cycle, and plans call for the loss of those trees to be offset by the planting of two or three times as many new trees, Desmond said.

The issue was not on the city council agenda Tuesday, so members couldn’t discuss it. In spite of the tree committee’s objections, no councilmembers asked that the issue be added to a future agenda.

City Manager Bert Johansson said the skatepark plans, which will have to be revised to conform to the new site, will be brought back to the council at a future meeting to get council approval before construction moves forward.

No skatepark representatives attended Tuesday’s council meeting.

The council agreed on May 13 to go ahead with plans to build the skatepark at Crane Park between the Head Start building and the volleyball courts, just beyond the outfield wall of the baseball field. The skatepark’s overall building envelope would be approximately 18,800 square feet.

The decision came after skatepark supporters spent almost two years raising more than $630,000 and drawing up plans to build the facility at Wappo Park near the Pope Street bridge, only to run into unexpected costs relating to the site’s Indian artifacts.

In April supporters pitched to the council the idea of building at Crane Park instead. After evaluating four possible sites within Crane Park, the council picked the location they said would have the least impact.

The tree committee reviewed the same sites a week before the council made its decision. According to Desmond, committee members at that time “all said it looked like a good project.”

Oldford said the location where the council subsequently agreed to put the skatepark “appeared to affect only a few liquid ambars, (and) was probably the most logical site.

“The committee assumed a more detailed study of all impacts would be done after one of the sites was selected,” said Oldford. “Unfortunately the council decided to move ahead with a detailed design for site number four, and a redesign of the (skatepark) is now under way.”

Bob Frescura, a former member of the tree committee, wrote the committee a letter on May 28 urging them to advocate more strongly on behalf of the trees that would be eliminated by the skatepark.

Oldford said the tree committee didn’t realize how many trees would be affected until they visited the site last Friday, and saw children and adults enjoying the shade of trees that would be lost if the skatepark is built.

Aside from the tree issue, “Crane Park is inconveniently located for (the) west side local kids” who would use the park, said committee member Tom Burke.

Committee members told the council it should consider other possible sites for the skatepark, such as Meily Park or the city-owned Adams Street property along Library Lane.