(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Noise from new pickleball courts in a northern suburb has disrupted the quiet once enjoyed by neighbors, and now they’re making a racket about it.
Pickleball noise travels for blocks in every direction, homeowner association group representative Alex Schubow recently told the Libertyville village board.
Schubow lives on New Castle Drive, within view and earshot of the new pickleball courts at Paul Neal Park. He and other residents are not satisfied with plans to plant bushes to try to muffle the noise.
James Hughes recorded the sound of one game at 8 on a Saturday morning from his daughter’s bedroom window. The sound was of a constant back-and-forth of a ball hitting a pickleball racquet. He says the noise is affecting the quality of life for he and his family.
“Does anybody enjoy their backyard? Sitting outside to have a glass of wine and chill? Well, we don’t anymore. Today, I could because it was raining. I sat on the steps today and listened to the silence for a few minutes,” Hughes said.
“Is it fair,” he added, “that I, my neighbor, Mark, anybody who’s within 200, 300 feet of the pickleball courts, shoulders the burden for the whole town’s pickleball fetish?”
Even Nula Cavanagh, who represented more than 250 pickleball players, says Paul Neal Park was not a good choice for new courts.
“Until those courts went in, I don’t think anybody fully realized the consequences of the courts. The noise level, as James says, for the neighbors, is dreadful.”
Cavanagh says the courts need to be in a place that has enough parking as well as bathroom facilities, both of which are lacking or non-existent at Paul Neal Park.
Village Board member Peter Garrity said Libertyville may have been a victim of its own success by having a soft opening for the new courts and seeing pickleball players converge on the park, anyway, despite a lack of fanfare.
“There’s a commitment, I know, from all of us, to make this thing right,” Garrity promised residents.
Libertyville’s main pickleball courts are to be built next year at a different park, Dowden Park.
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