OCEANSIDE - Designs are complete for Oceanside's two new skate parks and the concrete will likely be ready for action by this summer, a city official said Monday.

The long-awaited parks - one at Melba Bishop Park and another at Martin Luther King Jr. Park - will be between 3,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet, but will feature distinctly different designs, officials said.

At Melba Bishop Park, on North River Road in northeast Oceanside, the skate park will cover a mostly flat area and have a street-style layout with ledges, banks, hips and rails.

At Martin Luther King Jr. Park, in the center of the city, the skate park will have a flow-style design that includes a gently sloping bowl area connected to a deeper bowl for multiple riders.

"We kind of figure that these kids really deserve a good place to skate, rather than the places they're trying to skate," said Jack Anderson, a member of the city's Parks and Recreation Commission, which has been helping to plan the parks.

The new skate parks were approved by the City Council in November 2006 to replace a temporary skate park at Balderamma Park and a similar downtown skating area that the city closed in October 2005 to make way for new development near the Oceanside Municipal Pier.

When the skating area near the pier shut down, skaters lobbied for a new skate park that would still be close to the beach. However, coastal residents vigorously opposed that notion and inland parks were eventually approved by the Parks and Recreation Committee.

In March, the city approved a $147,000 contract with Grindline Inc. of Seattle for the final design, engineering and landscaping architecture services for the new skate parks. Each facility is estimated to cost $350,000 to design, inspect and build, a city report states.

Nathan Mertz, parks development manager for the city, said the goal is to have a contractor secured by April and to have the skate parks open this summer. He said the city is planning to prequalify contractors who bid on the projects, to make sure they have the skills necessary skills for the work.

Miki Vuckovich, the executive director of the Tony Hawk Foundation, said Monday that skate parks are "very specialized facilities" so it's important to hire a contractor who has experience in skate park construction. The Hawk foundation works with cities around the country to build public skate parks.

Vuckovich pointed to examples such as Carlsbad, which has struggled with space constraints for its skate park, and Coronado, which had to rebuild its skate park after he said all the cement slid down into a big pile.

Still, Vuckovich said, the demand for such parks is huge.

"All recreation officials understand there's a great need for this kind of facility," he said. "They see the kids out in the streets. They're generally not in youth sports, but they are engaging in this athletic endeavor. It's a way to engage the kids."

A report from the city's Public Works Department states that the Martin Luther King Jr. and Melba Bishop parks will be built using $500,000 that is already in a special city account set aside for skate parks and an additional $414,000 that was set aside in the city's budget for the current fiscal year.

In addition to the Melba Bishop and Martin Luther King Jr. parks, a third park is planned for a vacant property at Foussat and Alex roads, near the city's municipal airport. Officials say that site could accommodate a 10,000-square-foot to 15,000-square-foot skate park.

The city already has small skate areas at John Landes and Libby Lake parks and plans to build a large facility on a portion of the 465-acre, city-owned El Corazon property in central Oceanside within the next 15 years.

- Contact staff writer Marga Kellogg at (760) 901-4067 or mkellogg@nctimes.com