|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Could Menlo Park become the pickleball epicenter of the Peninsula?
During its regular meeting Tuesday, Feb. 27, the City Council delved into recommendations from the Menlo Park staff and Parks and Recreation Commission for expanding or enhancing an already robust pickleball program launched in 2020.
To that end, the council directed staff to look into a possible feasibility study that would assess potential sites for additional pickleball capacity.
But whether or not the program expands, the council acknowledged the need to resolve noise concerns from residents, tennis players’ complaints about losing court space and other issues.
“It’s amazing how one little (paddle) and a ball create so much interesting conversation,” Council member Jen Wolosin said during the meeting. “The noise issue I think is real for people, and I think we would be foolish not to try to address that.”
‘It’s amazing how one little (paddle) and a ball create so much interesting conversation.’
Menlo Park Council member Jen Wolosin
Council member Betsy Nash concurred.
“My top concern for pickleball is for the residents nearby and the noise issues,” she said. “Pickleball seems to have a unique noise issue.”
Sean Reinhart, the city’s library and community services director, told the council that staff has already been studying noise-mitigation measures such as baffling and will continue to do so.
He acknowledged the council’s desire to find an answer for the noise sooner than later.
“We’ve kind of made a note here that we should keep that moving forward without waiting for a feasibility study,” he said.
Mayor Cecilia Taylor believes the city has enough room for both pickleball and tennis.
Bolstering the pickleball program is an opportunity to provide a community benefit, the mayor said, but at the same time, “I think Menlo Park has a lot of recreational opportunities and also enough space to create space without taking away space.”
Right now, the city provides a total of eight pickleball courts — four each at Nealon and Kelly parks. At each location, a converted tennis court allows for pickleball activity.
The city is joining a sport expanding in popularity. Pickleball participation nationwide grew by more than 85% year-over-year with nearly 9 million players in 2022, according to the Maryland-based trade organization Sports & Fitness Industry Association.
Late last year, the Parks and Recreation Commission studied various development options and timelines for the future of pickleball in the city and with staff developed recommendations for the council to consider.
Among the recommendations were to:
• Continue pickleball play on the converted tennis court at Nealon Park with a temporary rather than permanent designation.
• Make the pickleball courts at Kelly Park permanent. This option would mean removing the court configuration for tennis and putting in striping exclusively for pickleball.
• Add noise-dampening material onto the existing fence at those parks.
• Build two new pickleball courts at Willow Oaks Park as part of continuing renovations there.
• Pursue the feasibility study, which would evaluate parks, joint-use sites owned by local school districts and other places for pickleball play. The study would also take into account cost, noise impacts, accessibility and other factors associated with each site.
Conducting the study should cost no more than $85,000, according to Reinhart. But he told the council that it would likely turn out to “be far less than that.”
Council members pointed out that this effort exploring pickleball’s future should not neglect matters related to the city’s tennis program.
“My concern is that by looking at pickleball in a vacuum … some of the recommendations that might come out could potentially lead to a cannibalization of tennis courts,” Wolosin said. “It seems like (pickleball and tennis) have to be looked at in tandem.”
She and Taylor also expressed their preference not to make the pickleball courts at Kelly Park permanent.
Resident Pam Jones liked that approach.
“It seems to me to have them temporarily is a good way to have multi-use of a court,” Jones said, addressing the council. “Whenever it’s pickleball season, you have the have it set up so that pickleballers could play, and when it’s tennis season, you have it for tennis.”
Jones doesn’t believe that the city needs to expand the pickleball program.
“I don’t think it’s necessary for us to create any type of programs, redoing our courts in such a way where we now have Menlo Park as the pickleball center of the universe,” she said.
Julianne Hanson, an eighth grader and player on Hillview Middle School’s tennis team, told the council that the rise of pickleball has been a challenge to her sport.
“We rely on Nealon Park tennis courts for several months of the tennis season for matches and practice,” Julianne said. “Last year, we had over 34 kids across four tennis teams, which is a lot of kids. The loss of one of the five tennis courts at Nealon Park to pickleball severely impacted us.”
Joseph Grass, the father of Julianne, backed up what his daughter said and told the council that the city should re-engage the community further.
“I think just a bit more community engagement, especially with young people and the tennis team, would really be helpful going forward,” Grass said.
But he has nothing against pickleball. “I think pickleball is great,” he said. “Anything that gets people out exercising is fantastic. I think it’s great for older people like me that can’t quite run around as far.”
The council’s deliberation on pickleball is also part of an effort to incorporate a long-term vision for the sport in the Parks and Recreation Facilities Master Plan, a comprehensive roadmap for overseeing and developing the city’s open spaces and recreational opportunities.
Cops offer a crash course in real world policing at Menlo Park’s community academyMarch 6, 2026 10:49 am