Neighbors fed up with pickleball noise: Sound study dispute puts court expansion in limbo

YORK, Maine — A proposal to expand outdoor pickleball courts is still pending approval as the town continues to wait for evidence the project won’t violate the town’s noise ordinance.

It was July 29, 2021, when York Paddle Tennis and Pickleball Club first submitted an application for preliminary approval with the town's Planning Board to add two new pickleball courts and expanded parking, according to town documents.

Neighbors expressed concern the expansion would amplify the sound they have come to know since pickleball first came to the club in 2020: the constant ping of plastic balls on the paddle and court.

“It’s the type of the sound, and its frequency, and it’s just never ending, 9 till 9,” abutter George Gendron said at a public hearing last year. “It’s annoying beyond belief. You wouldn’t want to live next to it, believe me.”

Since then, the club has provided a sound study by the firm Reuter Associates claiming the expansion will not worsen the noise heard by neighbors. The town’s peer review consultant, Minnesota-based Westwood Professional Services, read the report and told the town the applicant failed to prove this.

Reuter provided a revised version of their study in April to answer Westwood’s questions regarding metrics for measuring the sound.

The revision still lacked information, however, desired by Westwood. The firm wrote July 12 to Chris Di Matteo, the Planning Board’s peer review expert, that Reuter failed to include “key adjustments” that account for the repetitive, or “impulsive,” sound that comes from pickleball courts.

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Eric Reuter, the firm's principal, has previously declined to comment on the record without approval from his client. Chip Coupal, president of the club, did not return a call Monday. However, Coupal said earlier this year that the club had no intention of withdrawing its application.

Numerous residents have spoken against the expansion in public hearings since the application process began.

Along with the noise of plastic balls are complaints that members of the club are loud themselves, heard shouting and yelling by neighbors after dark. Members of the club say they are looking to be positive members of the neighborhood and have fun enjoying what has been called the fastest-growing sport in America.

York Paddle Tennis and Pickleball Club was scheduled to be heard July 27 but asked to be put on a future agenda, which they have done earlier in the year as well. Planning Board Chairman Wayne Boardman said the sound levels will be critical in their approval when the club returns for its next appointment with the board.

“I think it’s the primary issue with their application, for sure,” Boardman said.

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Sound levels remain a barrier for pickleball expansion

York Paddle Tennis Club opened in 2007 at 28 Mill Lane, where its members initially only played paddle tennis. In 2020 the club introduced courts for pickleball, which is similar to tennis but on a smaller court and uses paddles and a plastic ball. The sport has grown throughout the country due to its accessibility to people of all ages.

Neighbors like Bob Ellis say the pickleball noise has become noticeably more disruptive than paddle tennis, leading to the sound study. In Reuter’s April 25 revision to their original study, Reuter wrote to Coupal that the new report did not result in “significant changes to the results or conclusions.”

“The addition of two new courts will not create any violations of the York Noise Ordinance and will not increase noise impacts on abutters,” Reuter’s study states.

Reuter’s study relied on certain standards provided by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to assess compliance. Reuter wrote he did this because there is no guidance in the town ordinance for statistical descriptors or measurement intervals.

Westwood’s noise control and acoustics experts Rae Goldman and Andrew Schad acknowledged in their letter to Di Matteo July 13 that the revised report included some new details. However, they wrote that Reuter failed to properly apply the state DEP’s standard because it did not account for adjustments based on different noise standards.

Goldman and Schad said they therefore cannot conclude the applicant’s study quantifies the noise being experienced at nearby residences due to pickleball activity.

“The use of these adjustments is critical to properly capture the inherently tonal and impulsive nature of pickleball noise,” Goldman and Schad wrote in their July response. “The omission of these adjustments from the measured source data results in underreported overall noise levels.”

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What is the next step for York Paddle Tennis and Pickleball Club?

Boardman said he does not know when the York Paddle Tennis and Pickleball Club intends to return before the board with more answers to Westwood’s questions. Ellis, who lives close to the club, said he is waiting and prepared to fight the application.

Ellis hired his own sound consultant, Ken Kaliski, who came to a similar conclusion as Westwood last year. Kaliski wrote in a Dec. 9 letter that Reuter used the wrong metric for the type of sound produced by constant paddle whacking.

Ellis said he is limited in funds for legal fees, and that he would otherwise file a lawsuit against the club for being a nuisance. He said three people in the community have sold their homes already because of the pickleball noise. He said he will have his attorney speak at the next opportunity before the Planning Board regarding the pickleball application.

“It’s something we don’t want,” Ellis said. “It’s got to stop.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Pickleball expansion faces hurdles in York: Neighbors fume over noise