Marc Nelson
Audio By Carbonatix
After nearly five hours of deliberation – and a six-month ban – Centennial City Council approved an emergency ordinance on Tuesday, September 19, allowing the construction of pickleball courts more than 250 feet away from homes, but with strict rules requiring permitting and noise testing for those located within 250 to 600 feet.
“As I said to many people today, there’s nothing like walking in a room when you know half the people are gonna hate you no matter what you decide,” said Centennial Mayor Stephanie Piko at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Still, the city council knew it had to do something, because the six-month ban – aka pickleball moratorium – it had placed on new construction of courts in the city expires at the end of this month. Without some sort of decision on September 19, there would have been no regulation on construction, leaving the city vulnerable to courts being constructed too close to homes and disturbing the peace of nearby neighbors.
“We need to pass this, because we have no other choice,” Councilmember Don Sheehan said. “We have a moratorium that is expiring, and we have nothing on the books that does anything to stop the noise that’s going to impact our citizens.”
Centennial placed the moratorium on the paddle sport in March after worries about the noise of the game spread across the country, including in Denver – where noise complaints caused a shutdown of the popular pickleball courts at Congress Park. In Centennial, there are only two permanent courts, but a proposed development that suggested putting in many more has caused an upheaval among residents.
“Providing multiple outdoor pickleball courts in a social venue will do nothing but harm the community long-term,” said resident Stephani Samaras at the March moratorium meeting. “This will not be only a weekend annoyance for the surrounding communities, but also unsettling for those working from home during the weekdays.”
The city wound up taking six months to study the issue and come up with a plan. The resulting ordinance specified that noise from pickleball must not exceed 47 decibels, as measured at the nearest property. Additionally, play is only allowed from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and temporary courts – those where people lay lines and set up nets each day, then take them down – can’t be within 350 feet of residences.
Not everyone was pleased with the results.
The public came out in droves both for and against the proposal, which originally suggested that courts could be within 100 feet of homes – provided they met the 47-decibel guidelines – before a last-minute change.
“Your proposal of 47 decibels is absurd to me when normal conversation is actually 60 decibels,” said Heidi Parish, a Centennial resident and an audiologist, at Tuesday’s city council meeting. “Tennis and pickleball actually have the same average decibel count,” she added. “I think the real gripe here with pickleball seems to be about annoyance, and that’s a major slippery slope, I would say, because one could find an annoyance in so many other things, like traffic noise.”
Others don’t think the proposed ordinance went far enough, with many calling on the city council to require that courts be at least 350 feet from homes. “I sort of have to end with a biblical phrase,” said resident Larry Berliner, who advocated for the longer distance. “Let my people go!”
After public comment, a professional noise consultant named Lance Willis testified on Tuesday night, telling councilmembers that a pickleball court being within 100 feet that still meets the under-47-decibels requirement would be an extremely rare case. He also explained that sound comparisons of pickleball to other noises aren’t always accurate, because pickleball creates impulsive sound when paddles thwack the ball, rather than a consistent sound that will eventually blur into the background of someone’s life.
“The standard that we’re using is an assessment of annoyance, not simply loudness,” Willis said of how the city should evaluate noise and mitigation before permitting new courts. “What people respond to with the paddle impacts is the peak pressure, which is much higher than the background noise.”
Willis shared that he’s rarely been asked to evaluate other sports – including tennis – for noise concerns. He’s looked into basketball a few times but said it never went anywhere.
According to Willis, it’s very hard to predict how sound will look at certain sites because it has to do with conditions such as geometry and topography of the surrounding area. As a result, a decibel measure and sound analysis could be more effective than a mere distance requirement. Tuesday’s meeting evolved into a lesson on sound and sound engineering at one point, with Mayor Pro Tem Richard Holt thanking Willis for his patience.
“We’re not trying to pick on you,” Holt said warmly. “We’re down to decibels and distance here, and we are seriously trying to find the sweet spot on this.”
Even after Willis’s explanations, the council wasn’t quite sure how to proceed. “We’ve had public comment tonight that if this ordinance is passed as written it will end pickleball in Centennial, so that’s one opinion,” said Councilmember Mike Sutherland. “We’ve had other members of the public urge us to simply adopt a 350-foot distance standard no matter what, so we’ve got two extremes here.”
Under a 350-foot distance requirement, the city concluded in its report that most parks across the city wouldn’t be able to build pickleball courts at all. Therefore, Sutherland wanted to find something between 100 feet and 350 feet to allow the sport and also protect homeowners.
Despite the eventual outcome, things looked hopeless for a moment.
“We need to look at this ordinance. It needs some more work,” said Councilmember Candace Moon before suggesting that the council hold a second meeting before voting. “I could not listen to public comment and read all the emails that I read and think that we are protecting our citizens to the maximum.”
Mayor Piko got the group to persist, however, and everyone voted yes just before midnight.
Luckily for picklers, it’s not the end of the road for the sport’s future in Centennial, with the council vowing to return to the concept and work more things out.
“I think it’s important that we pass this and then come back and revise it,” Sheehan concluded.
