In response to concerns about noise, Reston Association has scaled back plans for pickleball courts at Barton Hill.

At a Sept. 6 community meeting, staff said they reduced the number of pickleball courts planned for the facility at 1901 Barton Hill Road from six to four and removed blended lines between tennis courts that allowed both tennis and pickleball uses.

The move was in response to concerns about increased noise from the pickleball facilities, according to Chris Schumaker, RA’s capital projects director.

RA conducted two types of noise studies on June 1 — one for continuous noise and one for instantaneous noise. In both cases, RA found that the average noise levels — measured in weighted decibels (dBAs) — were below the limits enforced by Fairfax County’s noise ordinance.

The average for continuous noise was 54 dBA, and the average for instantaneous or impulse noise was 57 dBA.

Staff also plan to install a sound attenuation product called Acoustiblok, a technology that could reduce decibels by 25 and 30 units.

“We feel pretty confident that we can mitigate the noise at Barton Hill,” RA Chief Operating Officer Peter Lusk said.

According to Schumaker, RA has submitted a request for the Virginia Department of Transportation to install a crosswalk over Barton Hill Road at the Sunrise Valley Drive intersection to address safety concerns.

The request was bolstered by a May 20 traffic study that found a high number of pedestrians using the crosswalk.

Staff also said that pickleball and soccer events could be staggered to limit impacts on the street.

RA’s Board of Directors will consider the project at its Sept. 28 meeting. The project will then go to the Design Review Board for review and approval, likely in November.

A contractor would be selected in February or March, depending on the board’s input. The contract will then head to the board for final approval after that point.

At the meeting, residents’ feedback fell on both sides of the fence. As pickleball has grown in popularity, concerns about the noisiness of the sport have mounted nationwide.

Laura David, who serves on the board of Reston’s Harpers Square Cluster, noted that the noise study took the average noise level from the center court and not from the boundary. She said that neighboring residents remain concerned about high levels of noise from the whacking of pickleballs.

“Sound still continues to be a major concern,” David said.

Others said RA should continue to support pickleball and asked for the original number of planned pickleball courts to be restored.

“There’s a shortage of [facilities]. There’s a real shortage,” said Reston resident Carol Dickey.

Some questioned if it made sense for RA to invest money in the project if it yielded only four pickleball courts.

“You’re talking like it’s something bad. It’s not,” said Carol Shepherd, a Reston resident of 46 years and a pickleball player.

Photo via Joan Azeka/Unsplash

A grassroots advocacy group of local pickleball players is taking its campaign urging Fairfax County to provide more facilities to a new, more public level.

The Fairfax County Advocates for Pickleball sent a petition last Thursday (Aug. 3) to the Board of Supervisors and Fairfax County Park Authority calling for two of the six existing tennis courts at Nottoway Park in Oakton to be converted into pickleball-only courts.

Located at 9537 Courthouse Road just outside the Town of Vienna border, the 84-acre park’s size and location would make it ideal for multiple, dedicated pickleball courts, the organization argued.

“It’s somewhat centrally located within Providence, which allows for easy access by more citizens,” Peter Montanino, one of the group’s Providence District members, told FFXnow. “Additionally, there’s plenty of room at Nottoway Park, which allows for pickleball courts and not bother neighbors with noise because that seems to be an argument that a lot of neighbors have.”

The petition was signed by 1,425 people, more than 1,300 of them confirmed to be Fairfax County residents. The largest number of signatories came from Vienna or Fairfax, but some were from as far away as Herndon, Alexandria and even Woodbridge.

With pickleball ranking as the fastest-growing sport in the U.S., dedicated courts at Nottoway would relieve some of the pressure on facilities in Vienna and Fairfax City, whose courts at the Green Acres Senior Center routinely draw over 30 people at a time in the mornings and 20 to 30 people at night, according to the petition.

In February, the Town of Vienna reduced pickleball hours at its Glyndon Park courts after nearby residents took issue with the noise. With the town council’s support, Mayor Linda Colbert wrote a letter to the Board of Supervisors in June asking the county to consider adding more pickleball facilities.

Since conducting a study of its pickleball facility needs in 2020, Fairfax County has expanded its roster by 48 courts for a total of 76 courts, including the completion of two courts at Cunningham Park in Vienna just this month, according to the park authority.

Another 10 courts are currently being developed, and eight more are planned for this fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2024, though Nottoway Park isn’t on that list, FCPA spokesperson Benjamin Boxer told FFXnow.

“This represents the most rapid expansion of pickleball facilities in the region,” Boxer said. “This work follows the outcome of a comprehensive pickleball study conducted in 2020 in response to an overwhelming demand for more facilities.”

Right now, though, the only site with more than two pickleball-only courts is the George Washington Rec Center in Mount Vernon, per the FCPA’s new park amenity locator.

The advocacy group argues that at least four pickleball courts are needed at one location for a facility to successfully support open play, where players can show up and join a game without scheduling one beforehand.

“Players look for multiple courts as there is a greater chance of having multiple players,” the petition said. “…Scattering two pickleball courts around the county in various parks will not be effective. Pickleball players want to switch up playing with many players in order improve their skills.” Read More

The tennis courts at Bready Park in Herndon are slated for major upgrades — one of several renovations projects undertaken by the town’s park and recreation department this month.

All six courts at 814 Ferndale Avenue will be closed today (Monday), as crews work to install new fencing and replace the court surface, bubble structure and mechanical equipment.

Players can turn to Chandon Park (900 Palmer Drive) and Bruin Park (415 Van Buren Street) for playing options. Parks and recreation programs will also be relocated to Bruin Park to ensure “uninterrupted” access for participants, according to a news release from the town.

The tennis courts are expected to reopen by Oct. 9, according to the town.

In addition, the indoor pool at Herndon Community Center will close starting July 22. Crews plan to remove lighting fixtures, repair tail and replace the boilers and ultraviolet (UV) light systems. General maintenance and application of a new white coat is also planned.

The pool is expected to open on Sept. 11.

“We apologize for any inconvenience caused by these temporary closures but believe that the resulting improvements will greatly enhance the overall enjoyment of our facilities,” the town wrote in a statement. “We appreciate the continued support and understanding of our valued citizens and patrons during these projects.”

The town also plans to build a new picnic pavilion at Haley Smith Park. While the impact to parking will be minimal, the town will set up a restricted area around the new facility. Work is expected to begin today (Monday) and end on July 28.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new pavilion is scheduled for Aug. 16 at 11 a.m.

Photo via Herndon Community Center/Facebook

Pickleball fever has officially taken hold at The St. James, a sports, entertainment and wellness club in Reston Town Center.

The Reston location will now offer two separate outdoor, turf rooftop areas with four pickleball courts, in addition to strength-building and cardio equipment. There will be more than 70 weekly group classes.

The company, which also has locations in Springfield and Bethesda, says the addition of its pickleball club demonstrates the company’s commitment to the community’s needs.

“Our mission at The St. James has always been to exceed the expectations of our members and provide them with world-class training opportunities for growth within sport and in life,” said David Hoye, general manager of The St. James Performance Club in Reston.

The club opened at 11951 Freedom Drive last year. The main facility in Springfield has an Olympic-sized swimming pool, field house, rock climbing wall and other recreational amenities. It also offers 50 group classes per week, sports leagues and numerous camps.

Court use is complementary for members, but non-member rates are $10 for drop-ins and $25 per court reservations.

A plan to bring pickleball to a warehouse near the Spring Hill Metro station in Tysons is starting to take more concrete shape.

The Pickleball Club of Tysons is seeking a special permit from Fairfax County to build an indoor pickleball facility with six courts at 8520 Tyco Road, an office and warehouse park just across the street from the Adaire apartments.

“There is a growing demand for high quality dedicated indoor pickleball courts in Fairfax County,” the club said in a statement of justification. “The Pickleball Club of Tysons will meet the growing demand as one of the only dedicated indoor pickleball facilities in Fairfax County.”

The number of pickleball facilities in the county has grown in recent years to 76 courts, as of June, according to the Fairfax County Park Authority. But indoor options remain limited almost three years after Pickleballerz in Chantilly became Northern Virginia’s first indoor, pickleball-only facility.

Tarlika Amin and Marc Greenberg, a pair of local pickleball players, decided to develop the Pickleball Club of Tysons after getting frustrated with the difficulties of finding open courts, they told WJLA.

They anticipate opening the new facility by spring 2024, assuming the permitting and construction processes go smoothly, according to WJLA.

Located toward the back of the 90,000-square-foot property, the facility will feature six 20-by-44-foot courts that can each accommodate two to four players at a time. The club envisions allowing drop-in play, competitive leagues, private lessons, tournaments and special events.

There will also be a reception or check-in area, a lounge, bathrooms, a water fountain and a management office, according to the application.

The proposed operating hours will be 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Just five total employees are expected, including a full-time manager and four part-time workers.

Estimating a maximum of 36 players at any given time and five total employees, including a full-time manager and four part-time workers, the club says it doesn’t “anticipate any meaningful traffic impact” as a result of the proposal.

“The site is walking distance to the Silver Line Metro, and we expect a large portion of patrons to come on-site via Metro,” the application said. “At any one time a maximum of 36 cars could conceivably drive onto the site. And again, this would be highly unlikely that 36 patrons with cars would be on-site at the same time.”

According to the application, property owner Cambridge has agreed to provide up to 50 parking spots at the site, which will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

While the property is zoned for an industrial district, Fairfax County allows commercial recreational uses are allowed with a special permit. The application notes that there are already a number of recreational facilities in the area, including the sports complex Perfect Performance NOVA and the Tysons Playground Fitness & Performance Center.

The application was submitted to the county last week but hasn’t been officially accepted for review yet.

The possibility of a new pickleball facility in the area will no doubt come as a relief to the Town of Vienna, which has been seeking alternatives to reduce noise-related conflicts between players and neighbors at its Glyndon Park courts.

As frustrations persist over the pickleball courts at Glyndon Park, the Vienna Town Council has resorted to appealing to Fairfax County for assistance.

The council voted on June 19 to send the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors a letter asking them to identify potential sites for pickleball near the town, whose only existing facilities — the four courts at Glyndon — have been plagued by noise complaints from neighbors.

“We are asking you to help Fairfax County residents have more options of locations to play pickleball with longer hours,” Mayor Linda Colbert and the town council said in the draft letter. “The county owns facilities near the town that could be used for pickleball. Because of their relative distance from residential neighborhoods, several of those facilities are far better suited to use for pickleball than Town of Vienna owned property.”

Earlier this year, the town reduced the hours when pickleball was permitted at Glyndon Park (300 Glyndon Street) in an effort to alleviate tensions between neighboring residents and local players.

Under the new policy, set open play hours were eliminated, and a reservation system was implemented for players who live in Vienna. The town is also encouraging players to use quieter paddles.

Since the policy took effect on March 1, the Vienna Police Department has received 18 noise complaints about pickleball being played outside the designated hours, Vienna Parks and Recreation Director Leslie Herman reported at a June 5 town council meeting.

Seven of those complaints were determined to be unfounded, and 10 resulted in police issuing a warning. At least four complaints have been made to police since that meeting, according to the VPD’s weekly recaps.

Despite those complaints, residents told town staff that the situation has been more tolerable this spring, and most regular court users seem to be abiding by the rules. The ongoing issues appear to stem from non-regular users who “either ignore the posted rules or do not know the rules,” Herman said.

“The residents feel that the limited number of people due to no open play is a big factor that is helping them tolerate pickleball play,” Herman said. “There is a concern that allowing open play will generate additional noise as the number of players will increase. The issue is not from the ball, but from the amount of people congregating.”

Based on 48 random visits to the park, town staff observed up to 18 people on the courts at one time, but that could increase if open play was encouraged, particularly with the warmer summer weather bringing more people outside, according to Herman.

The Vienna Pickleball Club had requested a return of designated open play hours when anyone can show up and use the courts, reporting some confusion around the reservation system and concerns that newer players are being left out.

From March 1 through May 20, the courts were reserved approximately 37% of the available pickleball times, Herman reported. Read More

Pickleball courts may be in store for a warehouse on Tyco Road, a still-industrial section of the Tysons West neighborhood.

A new commercial building permit application was submitted to Fairfax County on March 16, calling for a one-story addition with six pickleball courts at 8520 Tyco Road.

At this point, the facility exists more in theory than reality. A leasing contact for the 90,000-square-foot property confirmed that the owner is “entertaining” the idea of pickleball, but no lease has been signed yet.

The contact said they couldn’t otherwise comment, including on what company made the offer.

Just northeast of the Spring Hill Metro station, the surrounding area is dominated by warehouses and auto dealerships, with minimal green space beyond the small Great Lawn Park behind the Adaire apartments.

However, the adjacent strip of warehouses fronted by a Tesla dealership counts a crossfit gym and Tysons Playground Fitness & Performance Center among its other clients, suggesting an indoor pickleball facility may not be out of place.

Currently, the closest option for pickleball players appears to be the EastBoro Sport Court at 8251 Greensboro Street, where DC Fray will set up portable nets for an inaugural summer pickleball league. The league, which is already filled up, is scheduled to kick off on June 28.

The Fairfax County Park Authority now has 74 pickleball courts, as of last November. A study launched in 2020 found a need for more facilities to accommodate demand for the sport and reduce conflicts with tennis players, but the prospect of new courts has proven divisive in residential neighborhoods, where noise complaints have proliferated.

Map via Google Maps

(Updated at 2:20 p.m. on 6/4/2023) Pickleball players at McLean’s Lewinsville Park will soon no longer have to contend with wind gusts.

The Fairfax County Park Authority Board approved a $2,382 grant during its May 24 meeting to support the installation of black privacy slats on the fencing around the park’s dedicated pickleball courts at 1659 Chain Bridge Road.

“The increasing popularity of pickleball has been driving high demand for the athletic courts at Lewinsville Park,” the park authority said in a news release. “However, wind often interferes with play and hinders player performance and safety.”

The four courts opened last October as part of a $650,000 renovation that resurfaced all of the park’s tennis and basketball courts. One of the six existing tennis courts was converted into pickleball-only facilities, and another was restriped to support both sports.

Since then, “hundreds of players” have been utilizing the courts throughout the year, and demand “is expected to grow rapidly,” according to Baroody Camps, an organization that provides school and summer enrichment camps and programs.

Baroody works with the park authority to provide recreational programming, including pickleball. The lack of wind screens for the Lewinsville pickleball courts has become a frequent issue for players, the company said in its Mastenbrook grant application to the FCPA.

“Wind impacts all players at every skill level, undermining players’ ability to place and return the ball and in some cases forcing players to rapidly shift running direction to reach the ball in play, creating a safety hazard,” Baroody founder and owner Peter Baroody wrote.

In addition to “slowing the crosswinds that occur at the site,” the slats could also potentially “aid in noise reduction,” Baroody told FFXnow.

With the project carrying an estimated cost of $4,764, Baroody will match the approved grant funds and take full responsibility for maintaining the slats, though it says the equipment provider, Long Fence, describes its windscreen “as virtually maintenance-free.”

According to FCPA staff, the project will add 230 linear feet of 9-foot-high slats on the existing pickleball court fencing along the 120-foot sideline and along 110 feet of endline.

The installation is expected to be completed this summer.

Photo courtesy Fairfax County Park Authority/Flickr

The tennis courts at Rutherford Park in Wakefield area will be closed for about two weeks, starting around Memorial Day.

The park’s three tennis courts are set to undergo resurfacing work from approximately Monday, May 29 until June 12, the Fairfax County Park Authority announced today.

Unfortunately for local pickleball players, no changes will be made to the programming or layout of the facility at 4710 Guinea Road.

“Rutherford Park is not a candidate for pickleball courts and will not receive any pickleball lining,” the FCPA said.

Instead, the project will consist of “pressure washing…cleaning and filling existing cracks, resurfacing, color coating and lining for tennis, and installing new net posts,” according to the news release.

About $38,000 has been allocated to the resurfacing project in the county’s current fiscal year 2023 budget.

Residents are sounding off about a proposal to renovate the Barton Hill tennis courts in Reston.

Concerns about noise management dominated a March 22 community meeting where staff offered an update on the project, which would convert some tennis courts into six permanent pickleball courts.

Megan Murphy, a mom of two who moved from Rosslyn to Reston for the calm of the latter’s more suburban environment, said the pickleball court could compromise the quietness she desired for her 5-year-old child, who has special needs.

“I’m so excited for all the pickleball players that you have found your passion, that you found your love, that you’ve got something that’s getting you out there and active and social,” Murphy said. “But I think we need to be really careful and not just footstep all of the concerns that people have expressed.”

Concerns about the noisiness of the popular sport have mounted nationwide. Earlier this year, the Town of Vienna cut restricted pickleball hours at Glyndon Park due to noise complaints. Over in Arlington, the sport has fueled warring flier campaigns between neighbors and lawsuit threats.

The tennis courts on the west side of the facility at 1901 Barton Hill Road would have blended lines to allow additional courts as needed, and dividers would separate pickleball and tennis courts.

Both parking lots will be repaved, and drainage improvements are planned at the southeast corner of the site. The project is currently in the early phases of planning and scoping. Construction could begin later this year, depending on the approval process.

Chris Schumaker, Reston Association’s director of capital projects, said a noise study at the Autumnwood pickleball courts found that decibel levels did not exceed 60 or 100 beyond 150 feet of the facility. The March 9 study was done during peak afternoon play when all pickleball and hybrid courts were at capacity, according to RA.

The sound for pickleball ranges from 57 to 79 decibels, depending on proximity and the type of equipment used. That is 25 decibels more than a tennis racket hitting a ball, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Schumaker also noted that scheduling for pickleball and nearby soccer events can be staggered to reduce the chances of overflow into the street.

“What we did did is a preemptive measure to kind of see what we are dealing with from a data standpoint,” Schumaker told residents.

Laura David, a local resident, said she was concerned the “wonderful enthusiasm” of pickleball players would attract crowds, teams waiting for a turn, and significant noise in a natural habitat ravine near the property, which has a neighborhood in roughly 1,000 feet of the courts.

“There’s no way parking and traffic will be safe for our kids on bikes, for our people walking dogs, and for the general appreciation of a Sunday morning 7 a.m. quiet cup of coffee on the deck of our back of our properties,” David said.

In response to reservations about the safety of an adjacent crosswalk where turning vehicles are faced with a blind side, Schumaker emphasized that any changes would require VDOT approval and are not part of the project.

Rob Richardson, a player and local resident, said it was important to acknowledge that the scenario of having 24 players on the court and 24 waiting for their turn may only occur during peak hours. But he also conceded that “no one wants pickleball in their backyard,” and he might be opposed if it was in his.

Others voiced concerns about tension between tennis and pickleball players in the hybrid facility.

“The pickleball/tennis battle…can get nasty and contested,” resident Renee Shipe said. She suggested that RA implement a possible reservation system or process improvements to help enforce rules and regulations.

RA CEO Mac Cummins said the current plans are preliminary, and the feedback may inform future changes.

“Part of our job is to hear you all tonight and report back tot he board and make the final financial decision,” Cummins said.

Photo via Joan Azeka/Unsplash