Parks Commission decides on paddle tennis court configuration

The Culver City Parks, Recreation, and Community Services (PRCS) Commission confirmed the direction for configuring several paddle tennis courts at Tuesday night's regularly scheduled meeting. The use of these courts, particularly concerns about equitable access for paddle tennis players, prompted the commission to reexamine the courts' configuration.

However, cost considerations lead commissioners to hold off major redesign, sticking to small changes to manage concerns of both the paddle tennis and pickleball communities. While the court at Culver West Alexander Park will maintain a contrasting color for its pickleball-specific zones, the courts at Elenda Street, Syd Kronenthal Park, and Fox Hills Park will keep a uniform color to satisfy paddle tennis players’ need for space.

Many of Culver City’s paddle courts were recently renovated or are in the process of being renovated, making this discussion a timely matter. While considered very similar sports, pickleball and paddle tennis courts differ in size and striping requirements. Pickleball courts are six feet longer than paddle tennis courts, and there are some distinctions in the zones relevant to each game.

One of the primary striping differences is the inclusion of a “kitchen” zone on pickleball courts, extending seven feet from both sides of the net. This is considered a “no volley zone” in pickleball and is painted a different color from the rest of the court. Net heights are also slightly different, with pickleball having a 36-inch net height at the sidelines and 34 inches towards the middle of the courts, while paddle tennis nets are set at 31 inches high throughout.

At Culver West Alexander Park, where most of the discussion was focused on Tuesday night, the decision was made to maintain the current configuration, which is balanced for both pickleball and paddle tennis. The kitchen area is well defined with a different shade of blue than the rest of the court for pickleball players, but the nets will remain at the paddle tennis standard of 31 inches.

All of the courts will be “dual-striped” so they are equipped to handle both sports, which can be done in part because the line widths for both pickleball and paddle tennis are uniform at two inches. However, the different color of the kitchen zone paint caused complaints from those who play paddle tennis at Culver West Alexander Park.

Additionally, sound considerations played a factor in deciding which parks should be dual-striped versus outfitted for just paddle tennis. Residents near the Elenda Street pickleball courts lobbied for changes to court hours and sound mitigation infrastructure to address the sound, which can be more disruptive than other types of noise due to the repetitive starting and stopping.

In response to these factors, the recommendation from PRCS Department Deputy Director Adam Ferguson presented at a Special PRCS Commission meeting last month is to dual-stripe the courts on Elenda Street and at Fox Hills Park, but to paint the courts at Culver West Alexander Park and Syd Kronenthal Park for paddle tennis.

City staff determined that the sound mitigation measures in place at the Elenda Street courts, which cost $49,000 to install, were adequate to continue facilitating pickleball play, while residents were far enough away from Fox Hills Park to effectively mitigate any potential sound issues from its courts.

However, there was a conflict in the messaging from speakers at Tuesday night’s meeting. One speaker warned that the occupation of paddle tennis courts by pickleball players posed a threat to the sport, arguing that pickleball can be played anywhere. Most others advocated for maintaining the lines as they were to accommodate coexistence between the pickleball and paddle tennis communities, and several neighbors living on Wade Street near the park said noise wasn't an issue.

Based on his interactions with players of both sports, Commissioner Thomas Whitaker shared Tuesday night his belief that paddle tennis players were having difficulty getting adequate court time due to the explosion in pickleball's popularity.

Commissioner Marci Baun also agreed with this and said she would prefer to see the Culver West Alexander Park courts' kitchen zones painted the same color as the rest of the court. She also addressed a suggestion from Whitaker and one of Tuesday night’s public commenters that staggering hours for pickleball and paddle tennis players could create an equitable environment.

According to Baun, the city’s hesitancy stems from former PRCS Director Ted Stevens’ experience implementing staggered hours for pickleball and paddle tennis in Long Beach.

“It created all kinds of issues, and it didn’t really change anything; it just made it worse,” Baun said of Stevens’ experience.

Her solution was simply to increase the inventory of courts. She pointed to unused space in Culver City Park that could be used for pickleball courts, and Ferguson said there were imminent plans to build a “racquet court center” with dedicated pickleball, paddle tennis, and traditional tennis courts in an area of Culver City Park currently used for storage.

Ferguson said he has already received interest from developers despite the city not yet issuing an RFP for the project, and he estimated that it would take six to nine months finalize a design based on the timeline of the LA County Measure A grant being used for this project.

But even with this quick turnaround, the reality of additional courts for players is most likely several years away. Given that reality, Baun wanted to respect the purpose of the courts and the people who originally used them.

“The lines for the kitchen allow the pickleball players to play, but they still are paddle tennis courts,” Baun said. “I would urge us to move as quickly as we can to build more infrastructure specifically for the pickleball players.”

For Vice Chair Maggie Peters, this issue epitomizes a common obstacle facing Culver City parks: too few resources for too many people. However, she had a few reasons she did not want to resurface the courts.

Peters did not want to invest in resurfacing when the city’s parks have so many other needs, and she assumed that people would use tape and chalk on paddle tennis courts without a distinct kitchen, leading to a faster degradation of the court surface.

“Unless we are going to have a new person ticketing people who are chalking courts, it is probably going to happen anyway,” Peters said. “It would be really great if we could think about ways to make sure that paddle tennis is not getting pushed out.”

Having the courts designed to reflect the community's desires was a common thread among all the commissioners. Commissioner Jennifer Chen considered whether coexistence was both possible and something both communities sought, and considered the possibility that dedicated courts for each sport might be better.

“Assuming growth is possible, is the desire that we have dedicated pickleball and dedicated paddle tennis courts, or is the desire more for every court to be dual purpose as we increase the total amount?” Chen wondered.

Ferguson said that staff is looking to implement additional dedicated pickleball courts in the future because they are smaller, allowing more courts to fit in a given space. Given that goal and the lack of dedicated pickleball space currently, the city staff’s immediate goal is to facilitate coexistence.

Having dedicated spaces for each community should be the ultimate goal, Chair Crystal Alexander said, noting that there are projects in the city’s Parks Plan that would create courts specifically for pickleball.

She implored the community to express their desire for these spaces at city council meetings to ensure that projects in the Parks Plan they want to see happen receive the funding they need.

“I think it is sub-optimal for the various communities to have to co-exist, Alexander said, “But I appreciate all the effort in the community to do it during this interim period.”