Port Moody pickleball players may soon be served up a new place to volley.
A report being presented to council on Tuesday, Feb. 13, recommends the installation of three new courts dedicated to the sport at Town Centre Park (300 Ioco Rd.), next to the tennis courts behind the recreation complex.
The courts would be an interim step as the city continues to develop a more detailed feasibility study of new recreation facilities, expected to be completed later this year.
The report, authored by Port Moody’s manager of corporate planning, Marta Taylor, along with Julie Pavey-Tomlinson, the director of environment and parks, and Anna Mathewson, general manager of community services, said the city currently has no outdoor facilities exclusively for pickleball, although there are three courts available inside the recreation complex and another six can be installed in one of the arenas when the ice is removed in the spring.
Otherwise, players have to share tennis courts at Art Wilkinson and Eastlhill parks. Sports courts at several other parks are too small to accommodate racquet sports of any kind.
That’s creating a log jam, said the report.
“Current tennis courts are heavily used, indoor pickleball courts are at or near capacity and there is a shortage of appropriate outdoor court space for various sports.”
The report said tennis and pickleball are becoming increasingly popular and the POCOMO Pickleball Club has approached the city with requests for more court space, or at least more pickleball markings on existing outdoor tennis courts along with signs stating the rules for their use.
Three years ago, Port Moody council aborted an initiative to create six more outdoor courts in the city by installing pickleball lines on the tennis courts at Chestnut Way Park after neighbours complained about the staccato noise of the paddles hitting the hard balls.
“These games are loud and the courts are far too close to the neighbours,” said one resident, who even presented an acoustics study he’d commissioned that showed the sport’s sound creates stress, fatigue and anxiety.
Noise is one of the considerations that must be considered when planning for new pickleball courts, said Taylor, Pavey-Tomlinson and Mathewson.
Other guidelines include:
- a minimum 150 m buffer between pickleball courts and neighbouring homes
- vegetation around the courts to help dampen sound
- usage counters
- spectator seating
- proximity to washrooms and water fountains
- lighting
- signage
- a booking system to reserve court times
- up to date lines and nets
- orienting the courts north to south
- racks to hold paddles
The report said design work for two courts at Town Centre Park was completed in 2022, using money from the parks department’s capital budget, Supplemental funding from the growing communities reserve fund could help pay for the third court.
The report didn’t specify what the project would cost in total.
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