The City of Delta wants to see more pickleball players enjoying their chosen court, but just wants to cut down on the noise.
Following the defeat of proposed pickleball courts at Pebble Hill Park, council at a recent meeting due to negative area resident feedback, Mayor George Harvie has sent a letter to Karen Rust, president of Pickleball Canada and Walter Knecht, president of Pickleball BC, expressing support for the continued growth of the sport of pickleball.
In the letter, Harvie encourages these organizations to pursue equipment updates and other best practices to mitigate the growing noise concern associated with pickleball courts.
“A number of cities have been in the press and I have talked with other mayors about complaints that they have been having with regards to the proximity to homes,” said Harvie in a follow-up interview with the Optimist. “I very much support the pickleball organizations and anything we can do to keep people active is what we want to do. We provide free passes to play, so building on that, we want to put more pickleball courts in – they certainly are in demand – but in saying that, we just have to ensure that we don’t affect the nearby residential areas in terms of livability, so we have to ensure we are looking at the whole picture.
“We do have spaces and we kept the funds that were dedicated to that project [in Pebble Hill Park] and we will be putting more courts in, but we are looking at where they would be appropriate.”
Harvie said he has suggested that the provincial and federal organizations look at their equipment and the aspects of the sport to see if modifications can be made to mitigate the noise concerns.
“This would then in turn, allow us to put in more courts in those residential areas,” he said.
