Hopefully, Hoskins’ efforts will rally support from the greater Colorado pickleball community in hopes that DDPHE and DPR leaders will hear them out and determine a compromise. By presenting the request, they hope to find a better solution to the problem that will satisfy both the pickleball fanbase and the surrounding neighborhood communities. Players hope the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board will hear their appeal at a public hearing this Wednesday. Players banded together at the park’s four pickleball courts, many wearing Congress Park Pickleball Club T-shirts, and played games with other locals to support their cause. Park yesterday, May 8th, and played pickleball in protest. I’m asking the board who oversees the department to intervene.” Hollynd Hoskins, AttorneyĪs part of the pickleball community’s response to the ban, dozens of local pickleball players joined together at Martin Luther King Jr. It’s an arbitrary and capricious unreasonable unilateral decision. “They knew they were going to make the decision and they decided to design a media campaign of fabricated information and disinformation to announce a temporary directive. Hoskins thinks that the DPR intends to claim that the ban could be considered an immediate public health issue as a temporary directive, which would then only be in effect for up to 180 days. The decision for the DPR to ban the sport and remove the courts could violate municipal code rulings and also goes against the advisement of other city departments. While admitting that the sounds created by the game of pickleball can be noisy, the appeal argues that the decision to completely ban the sport and remove players’ access to the game unjustly excludes them from certain parks. Hoskins has since stepped in with an administrative appeal to represent the community of more than 7,000 pickleball players across Denver, including the 1,400 members of the Congress Park Pickleball Club who are now left without a court to play on. You don’t just drop an athletic field in the middle of a neighborhood with lights because those lights can negatively impact people’s quality of life.” Scott Gilmore, Deputy Executive Director for the DPR The pickleball activity in is negatively impacting others…We as parks departments across this country need to minimize that conflict, not increase that conflict by adding pickleball courts where they really shouldn’t be. “We need to build courts in a location that minimizes conflict, not create conflict. However, on April 3rd, the deputy executive director for the DPR, Scott Gilmore, announced that the new courts would not be built and pickleball wouldn’t be returning to those parks due to the noise being too big of an issue. This way, they’d be able to remove the structures as planned while also giving the community the needed court space.Īdditionally, the DPR planned to add four more courts to another nearby park, Sloan’s Lake Park, to appease players who went to the park specifically for the sport. Initially, the DPR planned on solving this issue by moving the courts deeper into the park, which they already had plans to close the courts due to asbestos abatement within the court structure. DDPHE followed up by conducting sound tests which confirmed that the sport was causing the noise level to rise above the standard 55-decibel level. The loss of these parks is huge for local players, as it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find outdoor courts.ĭenver’s Department of Public Health and Environment (DDPHE) has received various complaints from Congress Park-goers regarding the sport of pickleball, particularly about pickleball overtaking tennis court space as well as creating a noise problem for the surrounding community. Denver attorney and avid pickleball player Hollynd Hoskins is leading the charge against parks officials’ decisions to ban the sport in certain areas of the city.Īs is true for the whole country, the pickleball scene in Denver has grown exponentially in recent years, and the little court space that’s available is in high demand. The local pickleball scene in Denver, CO, is fighting back against the Denver Parks and Recreation’s (DPR) recent plans to remove courts from two of the city’s popular parks.
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