Pickleball project finds a match at Bonita Canyon park after Newport council’s OK
Pickleball is coming to Bonita Canyon Sports Park this year.
The Newport Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to go ahead with a pickleball court construction project that will place four playing surfaces on the park’s western edge for the increasingly popular paddle sport.
The courts will be funded entirely by fees charged to developers toward parks and recreation enhancement. As previously proposed, the funding would have been split between developers’ fees and the city general fund.
La Habra-based Green Giant Landscape won the $531,000 construction contract and is expected to begin work around June.
The courts will be designed to USA Pickleball Assn. specifications and should be finished in September, officials said.
The total price tag for the project, including costs for contingencies, printing, surveying, testing and inspecting, comes to $625,000.
Pickleball, which combines elements of tennis, badminton and pingpong, is played on a court similar to a tennis court but shorter. Several pickleballers set up a demonstration Tuesday in the community room adjacent to the City Council chamber at the Civic Center, with lines of blue masking tape on the floor and the pickleball national championships playing on a large-screen TV in the background.
Laura Detweiler, Newport Beach’s recreation and senior services director, said the city has received requests for pickleball tournaments but didn’t have the courts.
The sport found a player base in Newport in 2013 with drop-in indoor games at the Newport Coast Community Center.
In 2014, the parks department modified a tennis court at San Joaquin Hills Park for pickleball. However, the makeshift court affected parking for tennis and lawn bowling, confused players with its mix of tennis and pickleball lines and was available only in the mornings.
But it does have a dedicated following, with an average of 19 players per day last year and 225 registrants in classes since fall 2014, according to city parks staff.
The San Joaquin Hills court will revert to tennis only with the Bonita Canyon courts’ arrival.
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