Let Them Play! The Walnut Creek Pickle Ball Shutdown Fight

WALNUT CREEK, CA — A dispute over pickleball has erupted into a lawsuit, mobilizing passionate players and local residents, pitting them against each other. Now the Walnut Creek Pickleball Club is locked in a fight with neighbors to keep their home court open, and the City of Walnut Creek is in the middle of it all.

Bit by bit, players have been shut out of the pickleball courts at Rudgear Park because of noise complaints by neighbors on Dapplegray Lane, whose houses sit nearby.

Neighbors living near the Rudgear courts filed complaints against the owner, the City of Walnut Creek.

The neighbors sued the city, claiming harm and demanding that the pickleball courts be shut down.
The stakeholders, including city officials, neighbors, and members of the Walnut Creek Pickleball Club, met several times to reach a compromise on court locations and times.

Walnut Creek officials reduced play hours by 20 percent and closed the courts for two afternoons, further limiting the hours pickleball players can play.

Pickleball Club members said they had already lost half their play time. The courts are now closed and locked when most people are off school or work.

City officials are asking a judge to dismiss the case on the grounds that local governments should be immune from liability when conducting their regular course of business (for example, running their parks), according to the Walnut Creek Pickleball Club.

Claims, appeals, and counter-claims have bounced back and forth between lawyers focused on noise.
Players argue that the pickleball courts operate within legal noise limits and that complaints about sounds in a public space are akin to those regarding traffic or school noise.

"It's not a quiet meadow. It's a community park," one woman said regarding neighbors' demands for less noise from pickleball at Rudgear Park. She was speaking at a recent city council meeting, where pickleball players pleading for court time filled the room.

"People who live next to a community park can expect noise of people playing," another speaker said.
"How loud is pickleball, really?" one player asked on a forum with advice on how to address the problem to city councilmembers.

According to the writer, a school playground is 90-115 decibels. A leaf blower from 50 feet ranges from 64 to 78 decibels. Pickleball noise peaks at 70 decibels.

But, as another player put it, "'dB vs. annoyingness' is not a positively correlated graph."
"Pickleball is clunk.....clunk.....clunkclunkclucnk.clunck.......................clunk. A little more disturbing," a player chimed in.

There's noise, and then there's pickleball

Walnut Creek is debating how to address pickleball noise, a controversy that is drawing national attention. Carmel's City Council banned pickleball in its only public park with courts after neighbors filed noise complaints, effectively making play a misdemeanor.

The controversy centers on why pickleball noise seems so annoying near courts but does not seem to bother players on the court.

Pickleball play creates a new type of unwanted noise - repetitive, impulsive “pops,” exposing those living near courts to thousands of piercing pickleball pops per day, according to the paper, "Pickleball noise: The physiological and psychological effects on nearby residents," presented at a joint conference on acoustics.

The authors were members of Quiet Communities, Inc. "Quiet and natural soundscapes have become precious commodities. Leaf blowers, helicopters, motorcycles, and airplanes are just a few sources of noise that are imperiling public health," according to the organization's mission statement.

"Quiet Communities works to address harmful noise because quieter settings are healthier for people and the environment."

In the current round of Walnut Creek's litigation, neighbors' lawyers argued that excessive noise from pickleball play was harming the homeowners and that the city was violating its own noise ordinance. The response revolved around decibels.

But the annoyance factor appears to depend more on frequency than on decibels.
Although the EPA considered 55 decibels loud enough to impact the health and welfare of people, "the loudness is just one component, say researchers.

That is, pickleball noise may not be as noisy as other activities, but the frequency, the sound, and the pattern of play make the noise irritating.

"Some sounds can just be scientifically annoying," as this article put it, like the drip of a faucet, or the beep of a truck backing.

Companies like Just Paddles launched a line of soft paddles and balls to reduce that annoying factor. The design and location of pickleball courts also play a crucial role in noise production, according to the store. Dedicated pickleball courts are often constructed with noise reduction in mind, using surfaces and materials that dampen sound. "It's also important for players to be considerate of their surroundings, especially when courts are located near residential areas or shared spaces."

Instead of removing pickleball from the Rudgear courts, noise buffers and scheduling are now part of the litigation, and the city appears to be investigating options. The judge could also dismiss the case. Otherwise, the lawsuit will move forward to a formal hearing or trial.

The city attorney and Walnut Creek Pickleball Club have not yet responded to efforts to update the status of the pickleball litigation.