PARENTS PUSH FOR SKATE SITE : FOLLOWING LOSS OF TEEN, PARK PLAN GATHERS STEAM.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

The death this week of Hart High sophomore Joshua Randell, who was crossing busy Lyons Avenue on in-line skates, points to the need for a roller sports park in Santa Clarita, parents said Tuesday.

City parks commissioners said last month that a one-acre dirt lot next to the Metrolink station on Soledad Canyon Road would be an ideal spot for a park for skateboarders and roller skaters.

Such a park would have the types of ramps and obstacles that skaters of all types love to jump over and roll across. A $32,800 grant from Proposition A, the 1992 countywide parks and recreation bond measure, would pay for all or part of the park's design and construction.

Sharon Power said her 15-year-old son, who attends Valencia High School and is the same age as Randell, went to Santa Clarita City Hall on Tuesday afternoon to find out how to circulate a petition to show support for a roller park. Her son, a skateboarder and an in-line skater, told her he wants to have his friends and adults sign the petition asking the City Council for a skating park.

``There's just nowhere for them to go because they get chased off,'' Power said. Teens tend to flock to shopping center parking lots to skate and jump off curbs, which annoys merchants and can create a hazard for drivers.

``They don't want to ride in a (roller) rink. They are changing the sport, but they want a safe place,'' Power said.

City parks and recreation Manager John Danielson said the proposal could go before the council for a vote in the next two months. City officials still are negotiating with the owner of the property next to the Metrolink station and finalizing a design for the park, he said.

If approved, the project would be put out to bid for an architect to design it using the input of local skaters and skateboarders, Danielson said. ``We need to find someplace for these young people to go,'' he said.

The city would insulate itself from liability in case a skater got hurt in a city skating park, in part due to recent state legislation, Danielson added.

``The California Legislature has designated roller sports as hazardous recreation, and that implies that the person skating accepts the liability for the dangerous nature of what they're doing,'' he said.

Hart High School Principal Laurence Strauss said that students aren't allowed to ride bikes, skateboards or skates on campus because the school district can't assume liability for their safety. Also, skaters tend to trample the school's landscaping and damage brickwork and benches, he said.