Pickleball new site another step closer to reality
Pickleball players are another step closer to having pickleball courts at Mayor Bob Leonard Park.
Farragut Municipal Planning Commission voted unanimously during its Thursday, Feb. 20, meeting to approve pre-bids site plan designs for the courts at MBLP off Harrison Road.
“I’m super happy to see this move along, seeing it get finished,” Planning Commissioner Ron Pinchok said after the vote. “It’s a win-win for a lot of people.”
When asked if the action needed to go before the Board, Community Development director Mark Shipley said “the Board already dealt with it at their level.”
The most recent plan, which FMPC approved, is projected at $1.3 million.
“After additional public input and Board presentations, the final complex will be a nine-court complex with lights, between-court fencing, external fencing, a shade structure outside the complex and two (Americans with Disabilities Act) parking spots, totaling .98 acres of disturbed land,” said Ron Oestreich, Town’s Park & Recreation director. “The Harrison Road side parking lot at Mayor Bob Leonard Park is less than 100 yards from the new pickleball complex and has plenty of parking to accommodate all of the activity for the park, including pickleball.
“The specific location for the complex is where the current grass rectangular field is along Harrison Road,” he added. “We’ll be moving that rectangular field to the open space behind the sand volleyball courts.
“This pickleball complex will have two ADA parking spots and paths that will tie into our existing pathways. The front walk will have gates and a French drain between the sidewalk and the external fence. Again, those will all tie to our pathways.”
Oestreich said the lighting includes 36 LED lighting system through LSI Industries with 20-foot poles.
The plans to build the pickleball courts at Mayor Bob Leonard Park were decided as a solution to complaints about the McFee Park tennis/pickleball complex.
“For the past several years, Farragut Parks and Recreation has received multiple noise complaints from the Brass Lantern residents bordering the McFee Park tennis/pickleball complex,” Oestreich said. “Members of the Brass Lantern (Homeowners Association) have attended both Parks and Athletics Council meetings and Board of Mayor and Aldermen meetings, requesting the Town stop pickleball at McFee Park.”
Pickleball players also attended the varioius Town meetings, pleading their need for a place to play.
“Staff worked with residents and players to implement a reservation-only system of play for both pickleball and tennis,” Oestreich said.
At the same time, he suggested the Board consider building a complex at MBLP, which the staff then directed him to pursue. After conducting several community input sessions, staff chose Ross/Fowler, which designed the McFee complex, to design the new complex at Mayor Bob Leonard Park.
Subsequently, the Board approved a capital investment program allocation of $1.45 million for the project for the fiscal year 2025.
Oestreich said the initial design was for eight courts with a 25-car parking lot, coming in at $1.3 million. But after presenting the plan to the Parks and Athletics Council and hearing from pickleball players, the staff was asked to consider some additional amenities and a 12-court complex.
However, a plan with those additions “was priced out at over $2.1 million, mostly due to disturbed land exceeding 1 acre and, thus, requiring stormwater mitigation,” he said.
“After sharing this with the Board, it challenged Ross/Fowler to get as many courts as they can and keep the amenities the players have asked for, but stay under that 1-acre threshold,” Oestreich said.
The project includes one bid alternate to resurface the tennis and pickleball courts at McFee Park to eliminate the pickleball courts and add back the tennis-only lines.
“The complex has entered construction documents phase and is currently out to bid,” he said. “You’ll have a pre-bid meeting on March 20.”
The McFee bid opening will be 2 p.m, Thursday, April 3, in Farragut Community Center.
“We will take this to BOMA at the Thursday, April 24, meeting,” Oestreich said.
Planning Commissioner Louise Povlin asked about the timing to resurface the tennis courts at McFee Park.
“It would be around the same time of the new (MBLP) courts opening,” Oestreich answered. “We don’t want them to have an overlap where there are still pickleball playing at McFee when there’s pickleball playing at Mayor Bob (Leonard Park). It might be a one- to two-week lag. I’m not sure how long it’s going to take to resurface.”
For MBLP’s new courts and the McFee project, a five-month construction project is projected, with a finish date of Sept. 30. “We’re hoping for it to be faster than that,” he added.
“Hopefully, the timing works. We do have tennis (players who) use the tennis courts.”
Regarding the courts’ lines, he explained it is not pulling up taped lines, as the lines are embedded in the surface. The resurfaced tennis lines also will be embedded into the court surface.
“The new courts will have that as well,” Oestreich said. “It will be a beautiful complex.”
Concerning MBLP, “Have we had any conversations (about parking) with Two Rivers Church?” Commissioner Noah Myers asked. “It’s pretty obvious to me that there are going to be a lot of folks that are going to park in Two Rivers parking lot, and they are going to walk across the street to the pickleball courts.
“It may or may not be an issue,” he added. “Our peak times are going to be different.”
However, “to be good neighbors … we should reach out to them,” Myers said. “The other thing I think we should consider is doing a sidewalk tie-in across the street, at our expense.
“We’re in uncharted territory because we’re in another county, another jurisdiction,” he added. “But, I do think, at minimum, we should have conversations with Two Rivers Church … it’s a win-win for everybody.”
Oestreich said Town staff has not had conversations with the church, but other MBLP sports groups use the church parking lot.
“I agree they would be a good partner,” he added.
