A commentary by a resident of North Saanich.
Shortly after 9 p.m. Monday, pickleball died in North Saanich.
Despite several passionate speeches by pickleball lovers, a motion to investigate the possibility of adding sound attenuation to the Wain Road pickleball courts was voted down 4-2, including the councillor who seconded the motion!
Two earlier motions had been passed to essentially cease and desist any future pickleball activity at Wain Road and repurpose it for some other sport and to ask the staff to look into the costs and logistics of constructing six new pickleball courts on the Blue Heron property between the soccer complex and the Wain Road exit, land the District of North Saanich does not even own.
And not in that order.
That final motion was met with loud shouts of disgust and derision by the pickleball crowd and even epithets hurled at Mayor Peter Jones.
It was obvious that this was a done deal right from the start. Was it a promise made by the mayor to one of the nearby property owners to never allow pickleball to be played at Wain Road? Was it the fact that virtually all of those elected officials have likely never touched a pickleball paddle and hold no passion for the sport?
Or did they just firmly dig in their heels as a result of a constant wave of anger and vitriol directed at them by the pickleball community since the courts were padlocked and signed as “permanently closed” at 7:30 a.m. May 7, a decision that we now know was not legally made? We will never know.
But we know this. According to statistics, pickleball continues to be the fastest growing sport in America, having grown 51.8% from 2022 to 2023 and an incredible 223.5% in four years since 2020. And that’s just the U.S.!
According to Pickleball Canada, 2.6% of Canadians play pickleball compared to 1.2% of Americans. In 2022 there were 350,000 pickleball players in Canada, with a tripling of numbers in just two years.
Despite the sport’s funny name, the fastest rate of growth is seen in players aged 18 to 34. Judging by the crowd in the North Saanich council room on Monday, seniors rule the pickleball roost on the Saanich Peninsula. But at Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver, mostly young people fill those seven courts.
Pickleball is a highly addictive sport played for three main reasons — fun, the social aspects, and the health and fitness benefits. It is being adopted in many school curricula.
But pickleball has not been without growing pains. The sound of the game is definitely obnoxious and unfortunately, some pickleball facilities are regrettably too close to people’s homes. Wain Road is one of them. In some places, lawsuits over health issues and decreased property values, physical altercations, and even hunger strikes have ensued.
But slowly, with fits and starts, communities are coming together to find solutions. While soft paddles and balls have not really taken off, sound attenuation on courts that are simply too expensive to rebuild elsewhere (e.g. $30,000 versus $250,000) does offer some real promise. Just not at Wain Road.
During the past three months, I travelled to play pickleball in several major communities in British Columbia.
Closest to home is Carnavon Park in Oak Bay with at least four courts.
When the courts were threatened with closure as a result of neighbourhood noise complaints, did their politicians shut it down? Absolutely not!
They added sound attenuation which has largely solved the problem. Cranbrook has not just one but two pickleball facilities, comprising a total of 12 courts.
The eight courts at Kinsmen Park had faced noise complaints but today remain open and heavily used due to the installation of sound attenuation.
Port Coquitlam also boasts two separate pickleball facilities, comprising around a dozen courts. Lucky for them, their locations precluded any need for sound reduction.
The same goes for Parksville. Probably the best example of sound attenuation at work is found at Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver.
I had played there several times, but the last time I visited, something had changed. As I walked across the lawn I could not hear any paddle sounds.
I panicked, thinking that they had closed the courts for some reason. I could not see anyone playing because the fences were covered in a thick dark material.
When I opened the gate to enter, all seven courts were filled – with 25 players waiting to get on one!
Finally, Beaufort Park with its six busy courts in Nanaimo, where chronic physical altercations had taken place between angry neighbours and players, the city simply decided enough was enough and is building eight new courts in Bevan Park.
The Beaufort courts are being kept open until the new ones open.
Why? Because the mayor and councillors there, like the ones running all of those other communities mentioned above and countless others, know that pickleball is a good thing for the health and social vibrancy of their community.
But sadly, not the District of North Saanich. On Monday, August 12, 2024, our politicians voted to be on the wrong side of history.
A terrible legacy that will not be forgotten.
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