Ottawa pickleball courts shut down after noise complaints

North America’s fastest growing sport has hit an obstacle in the village of Manotick.

Pickleball—and more to the point, the noise it makes—has proven to be too loud for some neighbours.

Area resident Katherine Blake says during the summer months, when pickleball is in full swing in Centennial Park, a stroll down the path can be unbearable.

“It’s deafening, really," she said. "It seems to anywhere you are in the park even if you are on the other side of the park you still hear it quite clearly.

“I have family living on that street, friends and young children, they couldn’t use their backyards because of the sound. You couldn’t stand to be out there. It’s just the ball hitting the courts and when the bats hit it, it just goes right through you.”

Although Blake doesn’t live close enough to the courts to hear the games in action, Mark McCulloch does. His house faces the courts, and even with a wide street, other houses which back onto the courts, and a row of large trees, he says the sounds of pickleball echo through the neighbourhood. 

"We hear it in our backyard and driveway, it’s like constant pop, pop, pop," McCulloch said. “But we can get respite because when we come in and close our doors or head down to the basement we typically don’t hear it.”

McCulloch points out that although it’s good to play and live an active and healthy lifestyle, the courts are just too close to the residential area.

“If I lived closer to it like the neighbours across the street that back onto it the court, I wouldn’t want to live there, to be honest."

In 2018, the Manotick Tennis Club converted one of the six tennis courts in Centennial Park into four pickleball courts as a pilot project. The club, which operates the site under an agreement with the city of Ottawa, was allowed a five-year agreement to test pickleball.

But after the city received multiple complaints about the pickleball noise, a decision was made to no longer allow its play on the court.

“The City and the Club explored solutions that included reducing hours of play, testing lower-noise racquets and balls, and installing sound-absorbing panels on the fence that lines the perimeter of the courts," Dan Chenier, general manager, recreation, cultural and facility services with the city of Ottawa said in a statement. "The modified play options were not seen as viable without significantly impacting play, while the panels proved to be costly and could present a safety issue since the fencing was not designed to hold up panels or withstand the sail affect that occurs during high winds that could damage or bring down the fencing."

“We really are a victim of our own success,” says Lori Gadzala, a board member with MTC. “We’ve double our growth in the last five years and so we had to cap our membership last year at 825 people and that left a lot of people on a waiting list … we worked really hard to create a community environment here.”

Gadzala says there was also plans to build another six pickleball courts on an adjacent piece of parkland, but construction is on hold after community consultations.

“When we heard neighbours' concerns we took that off the table, but that is still an option and if we find a site than maybe that’s a way forward," Gadzala said.

The city has suggested the courts at Alfred Taylor Park, in North Gower, about a 15-minute drive south of Manotick, are a better option from a noise perspective. Although the court is old and has many cracks which could impede play, it will be assessed in April and is slated to be resurfaced in 2024.

Area councillor David Brown says the city has also offered to MTC the indoor rink surfaces at Manotick, Osgoode, and Richmond arenas, which would be available between mid-April to the end of August.

“This is weather-protected play that ensures pickleball players have somewhere to go because that is the number one goal that we want to achieve, that there is playability and accessibility for these players,” Brown said. “The other benefit to some of this play moving indoors is it reduces external noise that residents are suffering from, which is why we thought it would be an appropriate short-term solution while we look for a longer-term effort.”

Brown, as well as Chenier, notes that pickleball noise complaints have become an emerging issue across many municipalities across the country. Like other jurisdictions, the city will need to develop policies and standards for this relatively new sport that will guide required setbacks, buffering from other activities, and considerations for conversion of courts from other uses.

“If we can address it now and we can locate new courts in appropriate locations I don’t think we are going to see this issue going forward," Brown said.