A petition from pickleballers in Burnaby has staved off suggested cuts to the number of pickleball courts in the city.
After a parks department information report showed the possibility of significantly reducing the number of outdoor pickleball courts shared with tennis (in some cases reducing the number of pickleball courts from six to two), the Burnaby Pickleball Association created a petition to stop the cut.
'Astounded' by reaction: petition and report
More than 730 people signed the petition in two days.
Marion Taylor, the association’s secretary, said she was “astounded by the reaction of the [Burnaby] pickleball community.”
“There were groups out there that came out of the woodwork that we really didn't know existed,” she said.
But after a meeting on Thursday (May 26) with city staff, the association says the city has listened to its concerns and agreed to no court reductions.
Eric Bientjes, the city’s recreation director, said the parks report was strictly for general information for the recreation commission and not an action plan or recommendation to reduce the number of pickleball courts.
He said the images of the pickleball courts were used for illustrative purposes, but there are no plans to change the number of courts.
“They were just some examples of different things that could be done, not different things that are planned to be done, to handle sharing of community assets between, primarily, pickleball and tennis,” Bientjes said.
Future planning of court layouts will be determined by a working group of people from the pickleball association, city staff and other user groups.
What is pickleball?
Pickleball is a sport played on a badminton-sized court (frequently played on courts shared with tennis) with a perforated plastic ball and paddles.
Pickleball BC has a membership of more than 9,600 — and that organization is made up of more formal competitors and doesn’t include all recreational players.
The Burnaby Pickleball Association has more than 650 members.
Pickleballers highlight the social nature of the game, which is often played in doubles.
“The social aspect of pickleball is foundational to the game,” said Burnaby Pickleball Association president Karen Watson.
“Groupings of courts or hubs of courts are very important,” she said, citing those groupings as one reason it was important to not reduce the number of courts.
Taylor said she believes the city has listened to the association and is pleased with the outcome.
“The petition, I think, was extremely helpful and positive because it showed them that we are serious about our sport, we're passionate about our sport,” Taylor said.
The future of pickleball in Burnaby
Both Taylor and Watson said they’re hoping for dedicated hubs of pickleball courts not shared with other sports in the future, with permanent nets and lines and proper lighting.
Bientjes, however, said cities tend to build facilities that are multi-sport and try to ensure everybody gets equal enjoyment for recreation.
“We're looking to find the right balance between dedicated and between multi-sport activities,” he told the NOW.
The city is in the final design stage for four dedicated pickleball courts at Squint Lake.
But Watson pointed out that other cities already have a number of dedicated courts.
Delta has 19 dedicated pickleball courts, Surrey has 20, with eight more coming later this summer; Richmond has nine.
“Burnaby needs to go in that direction,” Watson said.
Pickleball noise complaints were a running theme during the pandemic in other municipalities, but Watson said the City of Burnaby did a good job of locating its pickleball courts away from residential areas.
“This sport is growing faster than you realize, so your planning has to keep up with it — look to the future,” Taylor said.
