A maelstrom of thoughts and feelings about pickleball is on full display in Centennial, as the suburban city embarks on an effort to devise regulations to ensure that residents are able to partake in the fast-growing sport without driving their neighbors crazy.
“The sound from pickleball all day is extremely bothersome,” a woman wrote, one of more than 100 comments submitted to the city on the topic in June. “Courts should either be in existing parks or areas more than 500 feet of residences, with hopefully some kind of sound barrier.”
At the other end of the spectrum are those who think the government should stay off the 44-foot-by-20-foot courts that play host to the tennis and ping-pong mashup that’s taking the country by storm.
“Please build more pickleball courts anywhere and everywhere you can!” one resident posted. “Those who don’t like the noise can move away — we don’t want grinches in Centennial!”
Noise is very much at the center of the conversation about where pickleball goes from here. Last week, Centennial unveiled a study it commissioned on how to craft rules and blunt noise impacts from the game. It comes four months after the city placed a six-month halt on the construction of any outdoor pickleball courts within 500 feet of homes.
The moratorium ends on Sept. 30.
“I feel like Centennial has the benefit of outdoor pickleball courts not being too prevalent in the city,” said Neil Marciniak, the city’s economic development director, who worries that the city’s more than 100 tennis courts are ripe for conversion to pickleball. “We’re able to get ahead of the issue.”
To that end, the city asked Tucson-based Spendiarian & Willis Acoustics & Noise Control LLC to prepare a report exploring the nature of the noise produced by the impact of perforated plastic balls on hard pickleball paddles.
The 77-page study is filled with charts and math equations, and features technical terms like “narrowband,” “tonal,” “infrasound” and “ultrasound.” But the recommendations in the report are straightforward: keep courts at least 500 feet away from homes and if they are closer, be prepared to use sound walls or fence coverings to reduce noise from play.
“Pickleball courts within 100 feet of residential land uses have proven to be problematic resulting in lawsuits, strict limitations on usage and court closures,” the report states.
Orientation of courts can play a crucial role — pickleball noise travels farther in the direction of play rather than to the sides of the court, the report states. Water features can also help, with a fountain on a back patio able to “produce partial masking of paddle impacts from the courts.”
Spendiarian & Willis, which declined to comment for this story, said what makes pickleball strikes so uniquely nettlesome is that they produce “impulsive” sounds, which are akin to “sounds that contain important information about our environment such as footsteps, a door opening, a tap at the window, or speech.”
“Continuous false alarms such as the popping sound created by pickleball paddle impacts make it difficult to relax, concentrate, or sleep soundly without disturbance as each time a pop is heard it draws the attention, creating distraction,” the report states.
Pickleball noise complaints prompted the closure of courts at Denver’s Congress Park in April. And in a story published last month, the New York Times documented disputes and disenchantment over noisy pickleball play across the United States. There’s even a Facebook page, with 1,500 adherents, devoted to the issue.
Cliff Clark, who has lived in his home on South Glencoe Way in Centennial for three decades, urged the city in his public comment to not let play go past 8 p.m. Clark lives next to Life Time, a private athletic club, which wants to build a number of outdoor pickleball courts.
“I don’t give a hoot what they’re doing at 10 a.m. or 2 p.m., but at 8, 9 or 10 p.m. when I’m trying to go to bed, I don’t want people hollering and screaming,” he said, noting that the demographic embracing the game has gradually become younger. “It’s not a bunch of old ladies playing — it’s jocked-up guys who want to hurt you.”
That’s the curfew that Park City, Utah, imposed last year when it became one of the first communities in the country to craft pickleball-specific regulations. Browne Sebright, housing program manager who helped write Park City’s pickleball code, said there is a severe shortage of courts in the affluent mountain community of 8,500.
Yet, there’s huge demand. During the height of the pandemic, the city received several applications from homeowners wanting to build courts on their property. Allowing backyard courts, Sebright knew, would generate the ire of impacted neighbors.
“This is a much noisier sport than other activities,” he said.
Park City requires a minimum 600-foot setback from the lot lines of adjacent residential properties, unless noise mitigation is included in the design, which would allow pickleball courts 150 feet away. For that exception, the applicant would have to conduct a site-specific noise study certified by an acoustical professional.
Play is allowed between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. and outdoor lighting is prohibited on neighborhood courts. While perhaps cumbersome to some, Sebright said, rules like the ones passed by Park City in April 2022 are critical to keeping the peace.
“Ultimately, a big part of our land use regulations in Utah and Colorado is protecting common uses,” he said.
Jane Robbins, who serves as the pickleball manager at the Homestead in the Willows neighborhood in Centennial, said she has no problem with the city placing rules on the sport. But she thinks it should make a distinction between a large, multiple-court outdoor complex and a modest neighborhood operation, like hers.
None of her neighbors, she said, have complained about occasional pickleball play in the neighborhood.
“I hope that the city will come up with different rules to apply to one or two unlit courts versus a community center with four or more courts,” Robbins said. “We need some flexibility.”
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