Nantucket Considering Island-Wide Ban On Pickleball Courts

An island-wide prohibition on pickleball courts was floated at Wednesday night's Nantucket Select Board meeting as a potential warrant article for the 2025 Annual Town Meeting.

The popular and rapidly growing sport has been a flashpoint in neighborhoods across the country due to the noise generated at outdoor courts. A recent New York Times headline opined that "Pickleball Noise Is Driving Everyone Nuts."

The Nantucket proposal, put forward by the Planning Board, was presented by senior planner Megan Trudel as a zoning bylaw amendment that would prohibit pickleball courts in all zoning districts on the island. Trudel told the Select Board that the potential warrant article came from “a lot of feedback we’ve been hearing mostly from Historic District Commission meetings...The intent of this article is the Planning Board, as a regulatory board, is hearing the community and this is really going to spark a conversation on if, or how, this may be controlled through zoning."

But Planning Board chair Dave Iverson told the Current Thursday morning that the proposal was "half-baked" and he was not entirely sure it would even make it to Town Meeting. Iverson said it had only been discussed informally by a few members of the Planning Board, and that it would be the subject of further deliberations by the full board next week. His feeling was that the proposal ultimately would not take the form of an island-wide ban, but would focus on how to regulate pickleball courts in specific zoning districts.

"This isn’t a ban, this is about regulating them," Iverson said. "The article needs to be refined. It's meant to start a discussion and see where we’re at. In its current state, it seems like a ban and that’s not the intention. In smaller zoning districts, I don't think they're viable. You can't have a 5,000 or 10,000-square-foot lot and place it where it won't impact your neighbors. The idea is, in appropriate zoning districts with space, to give them setback requirements and maybe screening and noise mitigation. Not to ban them. I just think we need some guardrails. It's about being respectful of your neighbors."

Pickleball - a paddle sport similar to tennis in which players use smooth-faced paddles and a hollow plastic ball on a court with a 34-inch-high net - has exploded in popularity in recent years. In 2021, 2022, and 2023, pickleball was named the fastest-growing sport in the United States by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. On the island, the Nantucket Racquet Sports Association pickleball courts located on Land Bank property off Hinsdale Road are busy year-round, with hundreds of members. The installation of private courts around the island, however, has been controversial in some instances due to the noise generated by outdoor pickleball.

Even if the zoning proposal makes it to Town Meeting and gets approved in its current form, it would not prohibit any of the island's existing pickleball courts.

Nantucket Select Board member Tom Dixon, a pickleball player himself, acknowledged that noise is an issue, but stated he was unsure how such a zoning bylaw prohibiting new courts could be implemented. 

“I know it’s noise that’s the problem, but how does enforcement work?” Dixon said. "Pickleball players like the noise, but it’s the neighbors who don’t.”

Select Board member Matt Fee added “If you could design a silent pickleball ball you would be buying a house on Eel Point or Hulbert Avenue. It’s a huge problem everywhere.”

Iverson said there had been several disputes around the island over the placement of pickleball courts, including one in Madaket where a property owner moved a pickleball court as far away from their own house as they could, and backed it up to the property line closest to their neighbor's home.

Recently, the Great Harbor Yacht Club's plan to build new pickleball courts on Nobadeer Farm Road sparked a brief outcry over its potential impact on the nearby Small Friends preschool and early education center.

"Look, pickleball is great, but it's not a pool," Iverson said. "A pool you can enjoy quietly. Pickleball, it's very loud. We have no axe to grind against pickleball. This was us as the Planning Board anticipating what could be the next problem. Our intention was never to ban it in all zoning districts, but to be thoughtful about it and protect people in small zoning districts." 

The Planning Board has scheduled a meeting on Tuesday, January 21st at 11 a.m. to discuss the inclusion of a "draft zoning article for pickleball prohibition on the 2025 Nantucket Annual Town Meeting Warrant." It will be the only topic on the agenda for discussion.

A statement released by the town after the Current first reported the news of the zoning proposal Tuesday night read in part: "The proposed language represents the most restrictive option — prohibiting pickleball courts in all zoning districts — allowing flexibility for amendments that could reduce restrictions during the Planning Board’s public hearing process or at Town Meeting, if that is the community's preference."

Asked to give his thoughts on the draft warrant article, Planning Board member Nat Lowell likened the debate over pickleball courts to prior controversies involving the proliferation of swimming pools and e-bikes.

"So I’m trying to reimagine 1987, when there were like 12 swimming pools on Nantucket, and no one really paid much attention to pools," Lowell said. "We were just happy to have the boat in Hyannis back then. If we had a crystal ball in 1987 and thought, 'Hey, maybe there will be 1,500 pools in 38 years on Nantucket' what would we have done regarding regulation? E-bikes are the same thing. What is the answer to the e-bikes? Nobody saw them coming and they just appeared in one season and all of a sudden we have problems with e-bikes being driven like silent dirt bikes in many cases. Now we have outdoor living in full swing. We have cooking systems, fire pits, and outdoor music systems all over the place. People love being outside, and now we have more things to do for activities along with them. Some make noise, some make smells, some require light, some require no light.

"I think the question for us is how far do we want to regulate individual behavior?" Lowell added. "How many enforcement mechanisms and employees for the town do we need or will we need or do we want? We allow farming, including animals that make a lot of noise, in all zoning districts. We also allow daycare in all districts. Not everybody knows this, but it’s true. I’m looking at pickleball as the new swimming pool or basketball court that may or may not be getting used very often, depending on the property owner. Personally I don’t want to get the next ‘leaf blower of the year’ award at Town Meeting but we do need to have a conversation about some simple regulations and requirements like we do now with pools, setbacks, screening, and possibly further restrictions in certain zoning districts like ROH-R-5 and maybe R-10."