Dog owners went head to head with pickleball enthusiasts as North Saanich council decided the fate of a controversial pickleball court at Cy Hampson Park.
The public hearing was packed Monday (Jan. 16) with passionate voices from those for and against the pickleball court, as almost 20 people came to the podium to voice their concerns.
Pickleball is one of the fastest-growing sports in Canada, with 1.37 million individual Canadians playing, according to the Sports Information Resource Centre of Canada
Residents opposed to the Cy Hampson Park court were upset about the noise, the loss of their off-leash dog park and additional stress on parking spaces.
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According to Coun. Sanjiv Shrivastava, the petition against the park received around 400 signatures. Shrivastava agreed with the members of the public who had complained about the noise that pickleball could generate an average sound of 73 decibels or higher.
A time extension was granted during the public participation portion because of the amount of people registered to speak.
Mayor Peter Jones said during the meeting that installing a pickleball court at Cy Hampson wasn’t optimal and that an alternative would need to be considered.
Jones said he realized that it would be a grave mistake to install such a feature at the park and would cause undue stress to residents in the area and those wishing to visit the park.
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He said the noise was a problem and that sound mitigation was ineffective, but those playing pickleball were not trying to cause a nuisance.
He proposed a motion that softballs would be mandatory for those wishing to use the Wain Road pickleball courts as this would be the quieter option.
The motion stated that pickleball would continue at Wain Road – not Cy Hampson Park – and that council staff would be directed to review using soft pickleballs at the courts at Wain Road.
The motion passed 6-1, with Coun. Jack McClintock being the dissenting vote.