Credit to Violet Newton

Community members utilize the skate park on May 1.

Whether you are an experienced half-piper, a park enjoyer, a pro (pickle) baller or somewhere in between, There is a new addition to St. Charles built quite literally for you. Kinetic Park opened its brand new extension on April 13. With new features including indoor rock climbing walls, a new set of indoor pickleball courts, a new inside food court facility and an 80,000 square foot park for children.

“Nathan loves this place, it has been a favorite since 2016, and to see the expansion and more people coming and have it this close to home,” Vince Smith, Skateboarder Nathan Smith’s Father said. “It has been fantastic. Were glad to see it keep going when we first started coming. It was just the concrete skate park, then they added the pump track, and now all of this. It’s been fun to be here over the past several years.”

The Kinetic park was formerly called Y.A.P. or the Youth Activity Park. It was opened in 2003 and originally featured a huge skate park, outdoor basketball hoops, sand volleyball courts, and a few indoor game options like foosball and air hockey.  The original skatepark has stayed there and opened throughout the construction but the rest of the park’s amenities were ripped up in order to hold space for the new additions to the park. 

“It’s fantastic. It’s a lot of fun,” Smith said.

The renaming and expansion of Kinetic park was due to a major investment by both the county, and the community. The project was overseen by the St. Charles County Parks Department and funded through local taxpayers. Along with funding from the park department many anonymous donors also pitched money towards the project.

“A lot of people have actually donated towards the expansion,” employee Randall Greene said. “The half-pipe was actually donated to us, and we got a big anonymous donation and a few other donations and things like that.”

The park has added all sorts of new activities to go alongside the park expansion, including a children’s week long summer day camp, women only skate times, late night park exclusive availability and special hours for people to bring RC cars into the park to alternatively use the skate park.

“Everyone on Facebook has been talking about it, like a bunch of parents are starting to bring their kids here and so it’s not only skateboarders, it’s a bunch of younger kids going to play in the playground,” Greene said.

Along with all the new park pieces that are open to the public, they aren’t quite done yet. There are a few more additions coming to the park including outdoor pickleball courts, a rumored RC car track and a splash pad. 

“We’re happy to see [new visitors],” Smith said. “It’s good to see a lot of new people using the skate park. It has brought a lot of people here who probably wouldn’t come here, and otherwise wouldn’t know about it.”

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Credit to Violet Newton