While some people say pickleball is their favorite new sport, others say it’s the most obnoxious.
A pickleball complex in York has faced major noise complaints from neighbors and is now pulling back its plans to expand.
“It’s constant noise,” neighbor Clint Ellis said. “Not just the paddles and the balls, but also the people at the court.”
Clint Ellis said Mill Lane used to be a quiet road. Now noise from traffic and pickleball games keeps his daughter awake.
“I have a young child that goes to bed pretty early,” Ellis said. “The courts go on until 9 p.m., which is two hours after we are trying to put her down.”
The York Paddle Tennis and Pickleball Club has almost 400 members, and it’s open seven days a week and 12 hours a day.
It’s America’s fastest growing sport, but the Ellises wish it would grow a little farther away from their homes.
“The sound when they play, it just keeps going. It’s ‘tik tik tik,’ it’s that same ticking noise all the time, and it’s very destructive,” neighbor Bob Ellis said.
The club’s president, Lauren DeLong, released a statement about the complaints Monday.
“It’s always been our intention to continue to be good neighbors,” DeLong said. “We hope that by scaling back our site plan, we can quickly move forward with building an 8-foot, specially designed fence around the court area to mitigate sound coming from the club by 10-15 decibels.”
They are also withdrawing plans to build a two-court expansion and asking players to use sound-absorbing rackets.
Some neighbors worry this won’t be enough.
“I’m all for it if they want to play pickleball, I think that’s great and there’s a lot of people really enjoying it,” Bob Ellis said. “But it should have never been in a neighborhood like this.”
