By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief
While pickleball has been played in makeshift courts around town for at least two years, what has been called the “fastest-growing sport in America” will now have a more permanent home at Palisades Recreation Center.
The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles voted during its Thursday, September 15, meeting to add hybrid pickleball lines to tennis court #7.
“The scope of the proposed project includes the following: replacement of the windscreens surrounding the tennis courts,” according to the board report, “resurfacing of the tennis courts [and the] addition of hybrid pickleball lines onto the tennis court surface (court #7).”
The total amount of funding available for the project is $28,000, which will be paid for by the RAP Special Fund Tennis Revenue Surcharge Palisades and Cheviot accounts—noted as $14,000 from each account.
“It will have seven pickleball hybrid court lines added,” Sonya Young-Jimenez, a superintendent of the Recreation and Parks department, explained during the meeting.
Pickleball is described as a paddleball sport, which combines elements of tennis, table tennis and badminton. Two to four players use paddles, made from wood or composite materials, to hit a perforated ball, similar to a wiffle ball, over a net. It is a multi-generational sport, played by participants ages 5 to 95.
“The informal report of the board on pickleball indicated the need to address the sound created by the sport as an issue when locating sites for this activity,” Commissioner Joseph Halper, a resident of the Palisades, commented. “My concern in this particular instance is that the location of court #7 at Palisades Park, when converted to accommodate pickleball, does not impose on the homes adjacent to that activity. I would like to approve this item if the sound at the residence site is in the comfort range for those residents.”
Young-Jimenez explained that pickleball has been played on courts 7 and 8 for “several months” throughout the summer with taped down lines with no complaints from neighbors, to her knowledge.
The commissioners voted to amend the report to impose a conditional clause of doing a sound test using pickleball equipment at the site. If the noise is reported to be an acceptable level, the project will go forward. If the noise level is too high, the board will consider it further before continuing.
“We started pickleball here at Palisades Rec Center on a basketball court summer 2020, two years ago, with 10 players,” Pong Nimnual, who helped introduce pickleball to the Palisades, shared during public comment. “And now the park was kind enough to have us play on a tennis court, taping the court. We tape and now we have over about 100 players.”
Before being heard by Recreation and Park Commissioners, the Pacific Palisades Park Advisory Board voted unanimously to support the conversion of one tennis court into a hybrid playing space after hearing a presentation about pickleball at its quarterly meeting on Wednesday, November 10, 2021.
“We have a large number of seniors in the Palisades that play pickleball,” Anna Shirley, a pickleball supporter who grew up in the Palisades, shared during the November meeting. “Since the courts popped up at the rec center, it is so heartwarming seeing these Palisades seniors with a sense of belonging to community, socializing, laughing, making new friends and getting exercise.”
On Saturday, May 1, pickleball was added as an official sports program at the rec center, giving Palisadians a chance to play inside the gym every Monday and Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
One tennis court can be divided into four pickleball courts, which means that 16 players are able to participate in games concurrently.
Construction for the project, according to the board report, is anticipated to begin in fall.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
