TUCKER, Ga. — A pickleball presentation motivated people to attend Tucker’s city council meeting on Monday night.
The city’s parks department addressed and updated council members about the most recent studies regarding the controversial proposed pickleball courts at the Tucker Recreation Center on Lavista Road.
“I think it’s important that the taxpayers in the community understand how decisions are being made because it’s their tax dollars,” Councilwoman Alexis Weaver told Channel 2′s Eryn Rogers.
The city is proposing to turn the soccer field at the recreation center in to 12 pickleball courts. The courts would back up to people living on Morgan Road.
“It’s the opposite of white noise,” said Heather Hale, who lives on Morgan Road. “It’s intrusive, it’s intermittent, and it’s at a frequency that’s super-duper annoying.”
Dozens of people showed up to the council meeting both for and against the proposed courts.
The project could cost upwards of $3 million.
To turn the current soccer field into courts, the city would have to address parking concerns, widen a road to accommodate Georgia Department of Transportation standards, and make storm water improvements since the field has a flooding issue.
Council members said because it’s on land the city already owns, the overall project would be less expensive, then other options like leasing space elsewhere.
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The city also said the current field is underutilized. However, the Tucker High School’s girl soccer team does use the field to practice, and the city said summer camp students use it to play during the summer.
One council member raised the point that if the courts are put at the rec center, then it would create more access to the sport, and it would become a more equitable sport if it is played on public courts.
“To be able to have public courts to be able to serve everyone in the community would be huge,” said pickleball player Bill Crews.
Crews also said pickleball is an activity that serves a part of the population that needs it.
“There are playgrounds everywhere, there are hiking trails everywhere, what there are not are pickleball courts for middle age, older community, and younger community, for everybody,” he said.
There was one point during the meeting where a councilwoman told the homeowners who lived on Morgan Road that they should have done their homework before buying property because the recreation center has the right to change what it wants on its property. That comment didn’t sit well with homeowners.
“[We’re] feeling a little chastised about doing our homework as residents, and it is zoned as residential,” Hale said. “The rec center is zoned as residential. We have looked it up.”
Some other council members also took issue with the comment.
“Being told that they didn’t know how to be responsible citizens, I felt that was incredibly unfortunate because it takes a lot of work for people to speak up,” Councilwoman Weaver said.
As for the next steps, Weaver said there is nothing currently on the agenda.
She said the bid they had expired, so now it will be up to the city manager and city staff to decide if they want to rebid or negotiate with the previous bidder.
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