Opponents to the construction of a 12-pickleball court complex at the Tucker Recreation Center took a more aggressive approach at the Feb. 10 Tucker City Council meeting, threatening legal action if the plan moves forward.
During the public comment segment at the beginning of the meeting, Heather Hale, a Morgan Road resident who lives near the TRC, said she was part of a group opposing the complex’s construction.
“The more we learned about the impact of pickleball across the country, the more motivated we became to advocate for ourselves and our community,” Hale said. “This complex does not represent the wishes of the community.”
If the complex is built, she said, the group will “immediately file an injunction.”
“This will leave the pickleball complex sitting vacant until it winds its way through the court system,” Hale said.
Other speakers likened the sounds generated by the pop of a pickleball hitting the racquet to the beeping sound made by a garbage truck backing up.
“Pickleball is an unusually loud sport, much louder than tennis,” Megan Neyer said. “Imagine me being outside your house backing up my garbage truck – beep, beep, beep, beep – for 16 hours a day, every day, all year long.”
Neyer said the repetitive intermittent popping sounds can cause people to experience “a chronic stress response that produces chemicals in the body, which released over time, can cause cardiovascular disease, sleep disturbances, anxiety and depression, memory impairment, attention deficits, and childhood learning delays.”
Residents around the United States have filed lawsuits against their homeowners’ associations, saying the constant noise and increased traffic has negatively impacted their quality of life, according to California-based law firm Ford & Diulio.
Locally, Avondale Estates has been battling with the same issue, and has placed several restrictions on area pickleball courts.
In the city’s January-February publication, it publicized new noise-reducing rules that dictate pickleball may only be played with soft balls. It also encouraged the use of noise-reducing paddles.
At the Tucker meeting, others called site and sound analysis studies presented at the Jan. 27 council meeting flawed and incomplete, and claimed that better and cheaper sites are available within the city.
No action regarding the proposed courts was taken during the meeting. The city has not yet signed a contract for its construction.
In other action, the council denied an application to rezone a property located at 5950 Hugh Howell Rd. from Neighborhood Shopping (NS) to Commercial.
Applicant Jon Kontopidis requested the change in order to allow for a dog-grooming business to be located at the center, which is not allowed under the current NS zoning.
Kontopidis told the council that city staff had requested he ask for the zoning change instead of requesting that dog grooming businesses be allowed under NS.
City staff recommended denial, saying it found “that the proposed rezoning from C-1 to NS could adversely affect both the subject property and the usability of adjacent properties. The NS district is intended to be a less intense commercial zoning district, which fits the character of this city gateway.”
After lengthy discussion, the council denied the zoning change by a vote of 6-1, with Alexis Weaver the dissenting vote. Mayor Frank Auman directed city manager John McHenry to “investigate the use table to see if this could be resolved.”
The council also:
- Heard that 13 new occupational tax certificates had been issued in January, with four of them being home-based businesses, and nine commercial operations;
- Held a public hearing about opting out of HB 581, which would institute a floating tax exemption that would cap increases in property taxes;
- Heard that an audit by Nichols, Cauley & Associates produced clean findings;
- Voted unanimously to approve a temporary moratorium on issuing drive-through window permits so the city can review the ordinance and modify it if necessary.
