City Council Discusses How to Reduce Pickleball Noise

Pickleball is easy to learn, fun, social, and fantastic exercise. It’s also relatively noisy. 

Pickleball can be significantly louder than tennis. The game’s fast pace and the fact that up to four pickleball courts can be put on a single tennis court means even more loud pops, according to Massachusetts Pickleball. 

USA Pickleball is exploring ways to make America’s fastest growing sport quieter, and so is the city of University Park. The city has had more than 10 noise complaints from three or four homes, director of parks and recreation Sean Johnson told the city council at its Oct. 1 meeting.

The city recently completed a sound study at the Williams Park pickleball courts with help from members of its Youth Advisory Committee, Johnson said.

The study compared the volume of sounds made by generation one and generation two pickleball paddles and balls based on decibel measurements taken at the center of the courts. 

There was five decibel decrease in sound when both generation two balls and paddles were used. Because the decibel scale is logarithmic, a decrease of 10 decibels means a sound is half as loud to the human ear, according to information from Silvent, a company that helps manufacturers improve their working environments.

The city has also heard information about installing a sound-mitigation barrier at the courts, which should take the sound level down by about 10 decibels if installed around the court, or by at least 5 decibels if installed on two sides, Johnson said.

Other potential noise mitigation strategies include removing the courts’ backboard, or adding a second fountain in the pond to absorb some of the sound, Johnson said.

Enforcement of a requirement that players use only generation two balls and paddles would be a tall order for the city, both because of staffing limitations and the difficulty of identifying second generation balls and paddles.

Council member Phillip Philbin said that the city could selectively enforce the requirement and impose a fine on violators who were caught. 

“I think we should communicate with the pickleball community the issue,” he said. “Hopefully, they would be good neighbors and appreciate the value of using equipment that would lower the complaint level and the noise level, and realize that if the complaints continue, that might put us in the position of having to raise money if we need to abate the noise some other way.”

Parks Advisory Committee member Ben VerHalen said that it is difficult to tell the different generations of paddles apart. 

“I don’t know what a gen two paddle is,” he said, pointing out that paddles do not identify which generation they are. He said he expects noise reduction screens would resolve the issue.

In other business, the City Council:

• Recognized Asst. Fire Chief Scott Green, who is retiring after 27 years of service. Green, who joined the department in 1996, won the Silver Employee of the Year Award in 2018 and 2023, and has received multiple commendations for outstanding performance. He was also a major contributor to the department’s effort to renew its ISO Class 1 rating, the highest Public Protection Classification awarded by the Insurance Services Office.
• Voted to continue resident-only parking in the 4300 and 4400 blocks of Amherst Street. The city will revisit the issue of resident-only parking and the soft closure of Amherst Street at Lomo Alto Drive after completion of a traffic study of Amherst Street, Stanford Avenue, and Purdue Street.