ANNANDALE, Va. — Weeks after the Fairfax County Park Authority announced plans to revert the courts at a park in Annandale back to tennis only due to noise complaints, a resident started an online petition.
Sarah Wysocki is fighting to prevent the move that would restripe the Kendale Woods Park courts right behind her house. She said the majority of residents support keeping the pickleball courts since the interest of the sport exploded during the pandemic.
“It means so much to the neighborhood,” Wysocki said. “It brings us together. It keeps us healthy and happy. Most of the neighbors that I've spoken to, and I've spoken to most of them, value the pickleball courts.”
Although it can be argued that there are other pickleball facilities within five miles of the park, Wysocki said it wouldn’t provide the same experience for residents who have grown to use the park.
Alice Bailey, who lives across the street from the park, said the park was underutilized before pickleball entered the picture.
“Give them hours if that’s what it takes because it’s bringing the community together,” Bailey said. “It’s a pleasant thing knowing people are around and using the facilities that we pay taxes on.”
Since the start of the petition last Friday, Wyoscki garnered more than 400 signatures.
“As far as I know, everyone wants it to stay,” Kevin Casey, another neighbor across from the park, said.
The decision to change the courts back to tennis only was no easy task, according to FCPA Executive Director Jai Cole. The county added more than 50 pickleball courts since 2020 to meet demands and popularity. The total number of courts is now at 84, with 16 designated solely for pickleball.
With the explosion of the sport, the county conducted a study on the placement of pickleball courts due to noise complaints. This year, it established site selection criteria that factored noise studies and best practices nationwide, which include keeping a distance of 250 feet from a pickleball court to someone’s home.
In the case of Kendale Woods, some homes fall within that limit.
“We're going to go case by case if residents who live within that distance complain about the noise,” Cole said. “It's bad taking things away so we waited, and we got specific complaints from residences who are within the 250-foot buffer of those courts.”
Neighbors say it appears only one homeowner has spoken out against the pickleball courts, but even if it’s only one resident, Cole said that’s enough to consider.
“It’s unethical for me to even force one resident to endure the sounds that we ourselves have identified as being a nuisance due to the public pressures to do so,” Cole added.
The county is reversing at least one other court.
Cole said they didn't hold a public meeting because this was an operational decision based on the county's criteria. They're working on adding more strictly pickleball courts, which take longer than just adding lines to an existing tennis court. One of the projects will be in the Mason District.
The plan is to transition back to tennis only by early June.
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