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Pickleball, one of America’s fastest growing sports, has rapidly spread in popularity across the country, and Mountain View city officials are looking to keep up with the demand with more courts.
The Mountain View City Council voted at its June 13 meeting to approve $156,000 in funding to explore possible locations and designs for the additional courts in the city. Council members had already flagged pickleball as a high priority in an April study session, and swiftly approved the plan on the consent calendar.
The number of people playing pickleball in America has grown by 159% over three years, up to 8.9 million in 2022, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. The sport’s widespread success is often attributed to its social atmosphere and inclusiveness to players of all levels and ages.
“(Pickleball) improves the health of the community. It gets people out, it gets the youth away from their electronics, and it gets families playing together. I mean, grandparents can play with their grandchildren. There’s never been a sport like this,” said Mountain View resident Monica Williams, who has been playing pickleball for nearly 10 years.
City staff picked Verde Design, Inc., a landscape architecture and civil engineering firm, for the contract, which is tasked with doing site research and design concepts this summer, followed by a community meeting to solicit input slated for this fall.
Members of both the tennis and pickleball communities have been advocating for more pickleball courts for years now.
“Especially in this area, there’s not enough land to find open spaces,” Williams said.
In 2015, the city launched a pickleball program using a temporary painted asphalt court at Rengstorff Park in 2015. The program soared in popularity, so in 2018 the city installed three dedicated pickleball courts at Rengstorff.
The city also implemented a pilot program for additional dual-striped tennis/pickleball courts at Rengstorff Park, which involves overlaying pickleball court lines on tennis court lines. However, pickleball and tennis players alike have found that the dual-stripe solution is only a short-term solution.
“Since pickleball first started getting popular, we have been advocating for this type of solution, where each sport has their own space,” said Terrie Rayl, President of the Mountain View Tennis Club. “…We want both sports to thrive. That’s my takeaway. We truly want both sports to have their own facilities and be able to thrive and just grow as large as they can grow.”
Williams said she played tennis for 50 years prior to swapping out her racket for a paddle, so she understands how the dual-striped lines on tennis courts can be frustrating for players, Williams said. She is excited that the city will take the expansion of pickleball one step further.
“The best thing to do is to have multiple courts, rather than just two or three courts here and there. That doesn’t create community,” Williams said.
The main elements of the Pickleball Court Preliminary Study & Design are split up into two phases. The first phase, funded with $156,000 in park funds, involves site research, feasibility and preparing up to three schematic design concepts for the courts. It’ll also include community feedback and environmental review. The timeline expects that a design plan will come to the council for approval in early 2024, according to the council report.
Once the locations and design are approved, the city will solicit bids for construction. City officials are earmarking $1 million for construction, though the staff report notes that the budget will be sufficient for “some funding for construction.” Additional money may require council approval when it comes time to ink a contract to build the courts.
If the final design is completed by fall 2024, construction is expected to start in 2025, according to the report.
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