The city of Portland, after hearing from numerous residents, has decided to hold off demolishing a skate park on Peaks Island that was built three years ago without permits and in violation of a conservation easement.

The decision comes a day after the Portland Press Herald published a story saying that the skate park was to be removed next week.

Jessica Grondin, the city’s spokeswoman, said Thursday that public works officials had been scheduled to remove the skate park structures, but now will wait until September.

“This was never something we sought out. It was not something we initiated,” she said. “And with the summer coming up, we thought, ‘Let’s let them enjoy it.'”

The call to demolish the skate park came from the Peaks Island Land Preserve, a nonprofit conservation group. The preserve holds a conservation easement on the land where the skate park was built and its president, John Whitman, wrote a letter to the city in February calling for it to be taken down.

Jackman Wood, an island resident who built the park with some of his friends in 2012, said he acted out of frustration that island leaders didn’t seem interested in helping find a place for children and young adults to skate.

Several other island residents said this week that even though the park was not properly permitted and is not allowed under the easement, it’s not harming anyone.

Whitman sees it differently.

In his letter to the city, he wrote, “The skateboard structure is a safety hazard … It would be unfortunate if a child were seriously injured while skateboarding there, and his parents brought suit, only to discover that the city had been aware of the illegal and unsafe structure on city property for years.”

The letter prompted the city to enter into an agreement, dated April 16, to remove the park by Sept. 30. The city would bill the cost of the removal, estimated at $500, to the land preserve, then donate that money toward the construction of a new park elsewhere.

There already is a dedicated Peaks Island skate park fund, controlled by the city’s Parks Department, that has $1,200 in it. That total will more than double by next year, Grondin said, after the city donates the $500 and after the Peaks Island council commits $1,000 in its next annual budget, which it has already pledged to do.

Grondin said the city will revisit the demolition of the park in September, per the agreement, “unless there is a new plan in place for a park or unless (the land preserve) changes its mind.”

Whitman said Thursday that he had not heard from the city about the delay but said it falls within the time frame outlined.

Earlier in the week, he acknowledged that the skate park issue had become political.

“Nobody wants to take away a teenage recreation area,” Whitman said. “And I’m sure it never occurred to them that there was an easement on this land. I’m sure they thought it was fair game.”

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