North Saanich holds serve in latest pickleball noise salvo

A presentation imploring the North Saanich council to reverse its decision to close the Wain Park pickleball courts didn’t score any points in the chamber, leaving players considering trading paddles for pickets.

“We are, of course, incredibly disappointed with last night’s decision,” said Brad Watson, president of the Saanich Peninsula Pickleball Association (SPPA). “They're locked into their mindset.”

Watson said that leaves the pickleballers in protest mode in their attempt to revive their courts, which were ordered closed in May following noise complaints.

“Might be things like rallies and placards and old style demonstrations at City Hall and maybe set up pickleball courts on the parking lot of municipal hall,” Watson said. “There's lots of options that we'll discuss.”

The courts are located about 50-80m from a series of houses whose residents Mayor Peter Jones said earlier this year had “gone through so much harassment and bullying over the last number of years that pickleball is just not going to happen at this time.”

SPPA denies all accusations of bullying and says the decision to shutter the courts was made with no transparency, public input, or fiscal responsibility.

On Monday night, several citizen speakers said the courts are paramount to keeping people of all ages—not solely seniors—healthy. The SPPA followed with a 10-minute presentation on a series of tests conducted in May at Oak Bay’s Carnarvon Park courts, which have been equipped with sound mitigation panels.

Reduce noise up to half

Speaker Frank Gee said sound measured from behind the mitigation panels fell in the 1200-hertz range which is where that pickleball pop sound comes from.

“We believe that it's possible to reduce that sound by approximately 50%,” he said.

Gee told the council area pickleball associations have even offered to organize volunteers to install some of the panels to lower costs.

“We are also offering to work with you to try to figure out ways or contribute to ways to close down the courts when it’s necessary to close them down to basically police them, if you will.”

The SPPA pegs the cost of sound panels effective year round at $34K while the district says it would cost $70K-$90K. Gee said panels would only be needed on three sides of the court, not four as North Saanich has said. “We want to work with you,” Gee told the council. “We want to make this work not only for pickleball players but also for the community, the local residents.”

Only one question was posed by councillors

The council listened to the presentation but didn’t pass a motion to further the conversation and only one council member had a question. Coun. Jack McClintock asked when the council could call a motion to re-open the courts. “Is it a six-month thing?” McClintock asked. City staff said it didn’t know and would get back to him.

McClintock, the lone voter against closing the courts in the spring, said he will try to reopen the pickleball conversation again when the council returns from summer break next month. He said the introduction of new information from Monday’s presentation should qualify to prompt a motion to reopen a discussion.

“I just see this as plain wrong. It’s a valuable asset,” he told Capital Daily.

The courts, built seven years ago for $150K+ were shuttered May 7 and within the last week or so, North Saanich workers removed the nets, poles and windscreens—-which the SPPA said it spent $5,200 on.

Coun. Irene McConkey and Coun. Phil DiBattista were two other members of the council and mayor to return email messages to Capital Daily. Neither had a comment.

‍ Accusations of misinformation

Watson said a North Saanich website is spreading misinformation when it says over the years, the district has “engaged extensively with our community, seeking insights and opinions from both residents and avid players.”

“This dialogue included numerous public consultations, feedback sessions, and careful reviews of how the courts impact our community’s well-being and use of shared spaces,” the background item continued. Watson said it’s not true and that the association has several Freedom of Information (FOI) documents from North Saanich to back up its claims. Watson said despite accusations of bullying, there are no mentions of harassment or bullying FOI responses from the mayor, council or neighbours. He said it opens the door for a possible formal complaint to the privacy commissioner.

Legal pursuit for judge

Meanwhile, the council has until July 19 to respond to a letter from a group of North Saanich residents and pickleball players who say if the council doesn’t reconsider, the group will move to apply the province’s judicial review laws to ask a judge to revisit the decision.

A petition (started prior the courts' shutdown) calling to stop the closure had 1,796 signatures as of Tuesday night.