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Neighbors of Belfast City Park say nonstop noise from the park’s pickleball courts is making their house “uninhabitable” and causing them mental distress.
“This is not a background tone,” Alexander Giblin told the City Council on Tuesday. “It is a relentless invasive barrage that penetrates our windows, our closed doors. We hear it in every room. There is no reprieve.”
Giblin lives with his wife, Lauren Valle, and their children on Mayo Street near the pickleball courts. The family hears the thwack of pickleball against paddle for up to 12 hours a day, Valle said. They avoid their back yard, turn the radio and fans on, and wear headphones. They are losing sleep, she said, and are forced to leave their home to escape the noise, which has affected her mental health.
“I became so severely distressed and agitated from the constant and continuous pickleball noise that by Sunday evening [of Memorial Day weekend] I considered taking myself to the emergency room,” she said. “My brain and my nervous system are currently injured, and I am not okay.”
As pickleball’s popularity has soared, so have complaints about the noise it creates. In April, Kittery closed its outdoor pickleball court over noise issues.
After the couple’s testimony, councilors expressed sympathy and a willingness to find a fix.
“Maybe it’s too much for the tranquility of what Belfast City Park was designed for,” said Mayor Eric Sanders.
The council began to brainstorm alternative locations for a pickleball court including Walsh Field, which the city owns, or on property owned by the YMCA or Regional School Unit 71.
While the city explores a more permanent solution, City manager Erin Herbig said that the city hopes to at least limit the noise by revamping the lighting at the pickleball courts. People have been breaking into the boxes where the light controls are located to turn them on and play into the night, she said.
By next week, the city intends to install lights that can’t be tampered with that will automatically shut off at 8 pm. They will also limit pickleball hours from 8 am to 8 pm.
The council will add the item to the agenda for their next council meeting which is scheduled for June 16.
Giblin and Valle lodged a formal complaint with the city last week and said that they did not want to take legal action but would be forced to do so if the city doesn’t remedy the situation.
Giblin stressed that his issue is not with pickleball itself, but the location of the courts.
“This is not about opposing the sport or the players, in fact no one is to blame. This is about a zoning oversight, one that occurred because no one could have predicted the sport’s staggering rise in popularity, or more importantly, prolonged exposure to the noise it produced.”
Even as they expressed the need to find a solution to the noise, several councilors, including Daniel Miller, also noted the benefits that pickleball courts bring, including the community and opportunity for physical activity it offers.
“It can be a tremendous benefit and negative at the same time,” Miller said.