Vacant lot brings BMX bikers, safety worries

A group of young BMX bikers has turned a vacant lot on a steep hill in northeast Calgary into an impromptu trick-riding course, prompting safety worries from city officials and the land's owner.

The one-acre property east of Edmonton Trail at Fourth Avenue N.E. sat unused for many years, and there is a 10-metre gap in the fence around it.

Grayson Hennig, 13,and his friends have modified the hill, carving the dirt into a course with ramps and jumps.

"Me and a couple friends got together and started digging lines and it just came together," said Hennig.

"I just saw the jumps here and I was like 'that's cool' and I just kind of got a bike and started riding."

But if someone gets injured riding on the hill, the land's owner would be liable, said Bill Bruce, head of Calgary'sbylaw services. "If the property owner has allowed this to continue and has not intervened, then that's almost like approval.

'We want to secure the property and make sure nobody gets hurt on here' Peter Fischer, property owner's spokesman

"He would want to be careful about that if he owns this property about either posting the land, or taking means to secure it, or remove materials that could be harmful."

Switzerland-based Venice Company Inc. owns the property. It will have the land re-fenced by the end of the week, said company spokesman Peter Fischer.

"That's kind of dangerous and we want to secure the property and make sure nobody gets hurt on here," he told CBC News.

The city and the property owner are over-reacting,said Kelly Dowd, whose comic book store is just up the street from the hill.

"Being a former BMXer myself, I thought it's pretty cool and at least they're using it and they're having fun at it.No one wants to see anyone get hurt, and that's quite obvious. But [they're] kids and it's inner-city, let them play."

Hennig plans to keep doing just that: "We're trying to like get a petition to go so they can make it into like a bike park or something. I guess you got to put a lot of work in if you want to have fun and ride."