LONE TREE, Colo. (CN) — No one should be forced to endure the sound of pickup pickleball for hours on end, argue a group of neighbors in a 13-page nuisance complaint filed against the city of Lone Tree in Douglas County in federal court on Thursday.
Mark Goodman is joined by four of his neighbors at the Montecito at Ridgegate Community in asking the city to silence six outdoor pickleball courts operating up to 13 hours a day.
One couple says they are unable to peacefully enjoy sunset views from their patio, even if they wear headphones. Another neighbor says in the suit he no longer uses his back porch, while yet another neighbor struggles to work from home amid noise that is audible even through closed windows.
“No resident in this community should live under these conditions,” the neighbors say in the lawsuit.
The neighbors have spent the last seven months lobbying the city to close the courts, but to no avail, as the city merely installed ineffective fences and landscaping.
The six outdoor pickleball courts can accommodate up to 24 simultaneous players and have button-operated lights so locals can play from 8 am to 9 pm, seven days a week.
Goodman says in the complaint that it’s common knowledge that pickleball paddles “exceed state and local maximum noise levels,” and that many other communities enshrine their pickleball courts in bubbles or buildings.
Since Lone Tree — a suburb south of Denver that is home to about 14,000 people — failed to conduct a sound study before building the courts, the neighbors funded their own, tracking the sounds which they say rattle the community for 13 hours each day, without even a little reprieve as the neon plastic balls can easily strike a player's paddle every other second.
Colorado law limits daytime noise to 55 a-weight decibels, or dBA, and dictates that night noises be lower, around 50 dBA. A-weight decibels measure relative noise as detected by the human ear.
Goodman also argues that pickleball strikes should be categorized as “periodic, impulsive or shrill noses,” which have a lower threshold.
The Montecito study recorded the adjacent pickleball strikes defying the law with noises as high as 62 dBA, day and night.
Not only do the noise levels violate nuisance laws, the neighbors say, but they are also banned by the section of the city’s criminal code regulating construction and fireworks. Violators of the petty offense may be fined up to $499.
The neighbors ask the court to declare the pickleball courts a public nuisance and to order the city to cover their attorney’s fees.
The neighbors are represented by attorney Tessa Carberry at Husch Blackwell in Denver.
Representatives for the City of Lone Tree did not immediately respond to an inquiry for comment.
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