On Tuesday, September 9th, Jack Pankosky received an email he’d been dreading for years. In a few sentences, the email threatened to destroy five years of work Pankosky had undertaken in secret, all in pursuit of one thing: a skatepark.
The Hogspot DIY skatepark in Germantown, Maryland, faced a total shutdown and removal. The shabby park – a set of handmade ramps, rails, and poured cement banks – sat atop the concrete foundation of a long-demolished barn. That grey expanse, in turn, was located in the
middle of a plot of land designated for a future Montgomery County Public Schools elementary school.
Email Notification of Violation
“Your organized group is occupying Board of Education-owned property known as Northwest ES #8 future school site … you are hereby directed to immediately cease all activities on the premises and vacate the property no later than September 18th, 2025,” the email read.
Skatepark Origins Story
Pankosky, 20, began constructing the park as a high school student. “I’d been walking through this field my whole life. It’s right next to Rockingham Road in Germantown; I grew up on it,” he said in an interview on Zoom on September 15, three days before activity at the park ceased.
“It used to be Phillips Farm. It was a farmer’s market. I’d go get my Christmas trees there. In the wintertime, they had a pumpkin patch, even a tractor that would wheel kids around the field.”
Philips Farm closed in 2009. A developer bought the land with the intention to construct 75 townhomes on it, according to Sarah Kessler, college & career advisor at Walt Whitman HS and former Northwest Cluster coordinator. “Around that time, MCPS was really pressed – the elementary school nearby was about 500 kids over capacity,” she said. The state allowed MCPS to purchase the property and develop it
instead, with a finished elementary school slated to open in 2017.
Plans for New School Dropped
By then, however, local Spark M. Matsunaga Elementary School was under capacity. Kessler herself wrote a testimony to the Board of Education in 2016 urging that they reconsider the project. “We ran the math, and there’s 4 elementary schools less than a mile from that plot. By the time it was supposed to open, the population wave had passed. A bunch of us in the cluster met and I led the testimony saying, ‘Look, by the time this school opens up, it’s not going to be full,’” she testified.
Since then, the area has remained undeveloped. “I had asked if there were any plans for it and they said, ‘No, the plan is just to keep the land and not do anything with it,’” Kessler remarked.
The Skatepark Gets Traction
Pankosky began constructing the park in the spring of 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s grateful for the help of his father, he said, who is a hobbyist carpenter and taught him the skills he used to build rails, ramps and boxes, as well as providing space and
tools for free. Through GoFundMe, Pankosky raised $500 in funds to afford materials for the park, including pouring cement obstacles.
Then Hits a Speed Bump
Pankosky was originally made aware of the park’s dubious legality in 2022. “This guy drove up with his white SUV, and I immediately knew it was trouble,” he said. The man in question was Gregory Kellner, Facility Manager for Montgomery County Public Schools. “I got his contacts, so I started talking to him. It felt like I scared him off a couple years ago, in 2022. I made a petition and got a lot of people to sign it, I bugged the hell out of him,” Pankosky said.
After the success of the petition, which garnered over 800 signatures, he didn’t receive any further communication regarding the park. Hogspot continued to operate for three years under the impression their activity was allowed. Gregory Kellner did not respond to a request for comment.
Expansion Follows Silence Post Petition
Now a third-year business administration student at Towson, Pankosky has continually expanded the scope of operations at Hogspot. In the summer of 2022, the park hosted the GOATS On Wheels skateboarding summer camp, and later worked with coach Richard Lamb to
organize a food drive. On June 7, 2024, the park hosted its first mixer event, featuring an open jam for any musicians to participate. That Independence Day, Pankosky and friends watched the fireworks over South Germantown Recreational Park at Hogspot with a community cookout and skate event.
Soon after, he started booking bands to perform. Pankosky is a musician himself, performing with Towson rock act Kino. During the summers of 2024 and 2025, Hogspot hosted six different live music events, with bands from Montgomery County and beyond playing in the grass while attendees danced and skated.
“It was the first place that we performed at when we started as a band,” said local Germantown hardcore band Eyes to End. “It put us out there in the music scene, allowing us to do what we love now.” Rock trio Glass Island stated, “It was a really open and accepting space for anyone of any type to skate, play music, or just spectate … It’s in our hopes that more spaces like Hogspot are made and less are gotten rid of and forgotten about.”
Community Support
Hogspot also received support from local skate shop Embark Skateboards of Frederick, Maryland. “They would come into the shop, and we would talk about what was going on with it. They had mentioned that they were doing a benefit skate jam for their DIY … So, we gave some
product for the jam and set up a booth during the event,” Embark stated.
Liabilities Led to Demise
Not all who visited the park were impressed by it, though. “People go back and forth on neighborhood sites, some like, ‘Leave them alone, they’re just kids,’ and others like, ‘It’s dangerous,’” said Kessler. “The county chose to ignore it, but it’s a liability issue – if someone is hurt on that property, MCPS could be sued for it. It doesn’t surprise me that they ended up making them tear it down.”
On October 6, the park was dismantled. In an Instagram post, Hogspot DIY stated, “We’re heartbroken to say that Hogspot DIY was taken down today. Thank you to anyone who supported us through the years. Whether it was donating, signing petitions, helping build, or
even just bringing your friends to come and skate!
Featured Image Photo Credit Jacob Koch
