By: K. Michelle Moran | Grosse Pointe Times | Published December 17, 2024
GROSSE POINTE FARMS — For some people, the most horrible sound in the world is nails on a chalkboard. But with chalkboards largely being a thing of the past, it seems that honor — dishonor? — might now be the sound of pickleball.
It was the increasing popularity of pickleball, and the corresponding desire to build courts in one’s yard, that led the Grosse Pointe Farms City Council to amend its tennis and other sports courts ordinance.
“Really, this was based upon the phenomenon of pickleball,” City Manager Shane Reeside said. “We have recently seen interest … (in) pickleball courts being installed in residential districts.”
The revised ordinance — which was approved unanimously by the Farms City Council Dec. 9 — doesn’t prohibit pickleball or other sports courts, but it does require site plan approval from the council.
City Attorney William Burgess said the revised ordinance would give the Farms Zoning Board of Appeals — which is also the council — “greater discretion” with regard to the placement of a court, considering issues such as whether it would pose a nuisance to neighbors. He said there might be some larger properties in the Farms where a pickleball court could be installed that wouldn’t impose on neighbors, especially if sound dampening techniques were used in its construction, but it would be up to the ZBA to make that call.
“This proposed ordinance gives us the ability to review the plan” and impose conditions, if necessary, City Councilman John Gillooly said.
Mayor Louis Theros agreed.
“This would give us oversight,” Theros said.
Burgess said if the ordinance wasn’t revised, people with enough property would be able to put up a pickleball court, as long as they followed other rules regarding fencing, lot coverage and the like.
City Councilman Lev Wood said the sound from pickleball “is distinct and different from the noise” created by tennis and other sports.
“The nuisance is not the decibel (level),” City Councilman Joe Ricci said. “It’s the continuous boom, boom, boom, boom (of pickleball).”
Tennis hasn’t generated the same level of consternation.
“From a big-picture standpoint, there is no substantial change to the tennis court ordinance, which has been (in place) for decades,” Burgess said.
People who have already created such courts in their yards have been the source of some complaints the city has received, mostly with regard to noise and hours of operation, Reeside said.
The revised ordinance would apply to new courts, not existing ones.
Tom Johnston, who lives on Rose Terrace, said there are former handball courts behind his home that have been converted into pickleball courts. He said there’s a group of male players who show up every Sunday at around 9 a.m. and sometimes play until 2 a.m. Besides the noise — which Johnston said “really can be annoying” — this group of players also apparently blasts music and uses words Johnston isn’t comfortable with his young family members hearing.
“The language they use is outrageous. … It’s sort of awkward at times,” Johnston told the council.
The ordinance doesn’t prohibit pickleball or other courts.
“I’m not in favor of eliminating pickleball in its entirety,” Gillooly said. “I think there need to be restrictions.”
The ordinance also doesn’t prevent someone from playing pickleball, basketball or another sport in their driveway, as long as the driveway is still primarily used for vehicles and not primarily as a court.
Besides council approval, residents would need to get a building permit to construct a temporary or permanent court.
Burgess cautioned the council against placing hours when play would be allowed in the ordinance itself.
“The question is, do you handcuff the (zoning) board in making more restrictive conditions” in particular cases, Burgess asked.
In addition, Burgess said that with pickleball, it’s not the time of day that’s the problem so much as it is “the constant noise and duration” of play.
Because Farms officials wanted to have something in place immediately, they approved this ordinance at their December meeting rather than delaying approval to a future meeting, even though officials like Theros said they might end up making additional amendments to it in the next couple of months.