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Tucker staff slams door
on TRC pickleball bid
By Cathy Cobbs
In yet another surprise twist, the
Tucker City Council at its Sept. 22
meeting voted 6-1 to kill the bid process
for a 12-court pickleball complex at
Tucker Recreation Center — but not for
the reasons that have bitterly divided the
community.
Mayor Frank Auman made the
motion after the panel listened to a two-
hour presentation made by representatives
from Pickleball Sound Mitigation
Consulting, who had been hired to do a
study about the effects of pickleball noise
at Henderson and Rosenfeld Parks, as
well as the Tucker Recreation Center.
The study, among other
recommendations, said the installation
of 12- or 14-foot barriers around the
TRC courts would effectively reduce
sound levels emanating from courts to 52
decibels.
A surprise recommendation
After the presentation from PSMC’s
Dale Van Scoyk and Braxton Boren,
Tucker Parks and Recreation Director Rip
Robertson told the council that “staff is
recommending not moving forward with
this project.”
“The PSM recommendation would
eliminate any sidelines, creating a safety
liability issue for the city,” Robertson said.
Auman clarified Robertson’s remarks,
saying “even if sound mitigation was
sufficient, the parks department doesn’t
want it, at whatever price, for safety
and liability issues,” which Robertson
affirmed.
The measure passed 6-1, with
Council Member Vinh Nguyen the lone
dissenting vote.
Nguyen, who spoke after the
presentation and before the vote, said
he believed that the “safety situation is a
little overblown.”
He also said while he respected the
viewpoint of the Morgan Road neighbors,
who have claimed the noise from the
courts would disrupt their lives and well-
being, he didn’t think that “it would have
affected them.”
He also angered attendees after he
asked the room to be silent for a minute,
and then rapped his knuckles on a desk,
and said “that is 50 decibels, [and the
sound] once every couple of minutes —
that’s what we are dealing with.”
Rebecca Gross, representing residents
who opposed the complex, said the “6-1
vote to pull the directive, from the June 9
meeting to city manager, to put the May
2025 design out to bid was a critical and
important step in healing the division
caused by this controversial proposal.
“For that we are grateful. Tucker is
grateful,” Gross said. “We look forward to
Tucker meeting the growing demand for
pickleball courts in a fiscally responsible
manner that poses ZERO threat to the
quality of life of any resident or our
neighborhoods.”
Study: 12- to 14-foot sound
barriers needed at TRC
In its 68-page report regarding the
12-court plan at the TRC, PSMC said
if no barriers were put in place, “the raw
pickleball sound emitted by the courts
is predicted to exceed 60 dBA [decibels]
at the northern residences, and to reach
higher noise levels to the south.”
“The 10’ northern barriers in the May
2025 plans would mitigate noise from
some court positions but leave direct
sound paths from other positions on the
courts, particularly to the residential and
commercial properties to the east, where
noise levels are predicted to remain well
above the target limit,” the report said.
Even erecting a 12-foot barrier, which
would cut off sound to the east and west
of the courts, sounds would still exceed
the target limit of 52 decibels by 1-2
decibels.
The report recommended fully
enclosing the east court with 12-foot
barriers on all sides, increasing the height
of the center court’s northern barrier to
14 feet, reducing the number of courts on
the northern dual-use tennis court and
rotating their orientation by 90 degrees.
However, while the changes will reduce
levels to the north and south, the report
predicted it would increase levels to the
east by six decibels.
Henderson Park may be an option
Regarding Henderson Park, where
the city is evaluating the conversion of
four existing tennis courts into dual-use
courts for both pickleball and tennis, the
proposed area is located at least 300 feet
from existing homes with no direct line of
sight from the courts to the homes.
“A buffer of mature trees and
vegetation separates the residences from
the racquet/paddle court area, which is
situated 30’ to 75’ higher in elevation
than the surrounding homes,” the study
said.
The footprint area of four tennis
courts would comfortably support play
on up to 12 pickleball courts, while still
keeping the tennis nets in place, it said.
“When adjusted for elevations,
directionality factors, and other
parameters, the modeling software
predicts that maximum sound levels will
be at or below the conservative target
limit of 50 dBA without the addition
of sound mitigation barriers or other
attenuation measures for any or all of the
planned courts,” the PSMC study said.
Consultants say Rosenfeld Park
‘not the best place’ for courts
In regard to Rosenfeld Park, where
renovations to four existing tennis courts
