The Palm Springs Planning Commission postponed a decision on Tuesday about a planned commercial 16-course pickleball complex near the International Airport Palm Spring and asked the developers to pronounce concerns about noise reduction, parking and traffic, before returning to a further hearing.
PPUSA, LLC, with Clifford Teston as a managing member, applies for approval for the development of the leisure facility on the southwestern corner of Avenida Evelita and Airport Center Drive, according to the urban planning documents. The project comprises 13 dishes in a competitive size and three leisure dishes as well as a 1,231 square meter concession building that offers food, drinks and toilets.
While the commissioners expressed support for the concept, they voted 6: 1 to continue the matter up to a future date in order to carry out acoustic studies and solve several technical problems. Commissioner David Murphy accused the lonely different vote and preferred to approved the project on Tuesday evening.
“We love the idea of the value of an additional sports field and the additional pickle ball for the residents,” said Chairman Kathy Weremiuk. “This is the best website in the city for it. It is a good place. It just has to be adjusted to make it perfect.”
The main concerns of the Commission focused on potential noise effects on nearby residential areas. The commissioners found that pickleball creates a different kind of noise than tennis, whereby harder paddle and balls can create sharper, more frequent noises that can continue as traditional sports.
The facility would operate every day from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., but the commissioners asked whether the city's noise regulation would correspond in the early morning and the late evening hours, which had more restrictive standards between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.
The employees initially recommended the approval and found that the project meets the zoning requirements for the M-1 industrial zone. The nearest residential properties are about 200 feet south of the Ramon Road, from which the employees were sufficient in view of the existing ambient noise from traffic and airport.
However, public comments that were submitted before the meeting made concerns about the cumulative effects of pickleball noise, especially in longer operating times. While the city's noise ordinance uses different standards for industrial zones, the Commission has the authority to impose additional conditions based on the well -being of the public based on more extensive criteria.
The Commission instructed the applicant to return with several changes:
- Professional acoustic studies to examine options for reducing noise reductions, including the proposed combination of masonry walls and decorative metal fences compared to solid eight-foot sound walls
- Technical analysis of the noise levels during the restricted hours under the city's noise regulation
- Solution of parking questions, including concerns about a juice parking space and the number of parking spaces proposed at the Drive Airport Center
- Clarification of traffic access at the intersection of Ramon Road and Avenida Evelita
- Consideration of shadow structures about some dishes and improved landscape design for additional sound buffering
The project would include Course lighting for night games, 55 parking spaces and landscape design. Developers ask for a minor change to reduce the required parking space by 10%, from 60 places up to 55 places.
The facility is planned as a private leisure club, which is accessible to the public with paid memberships and day tickets for visitors. The applicant also plans to pursue an alcohol license for serving beer and wine that would be processed separately by the state authorities.
The project reflects the growing demand for pickleball facilities in Palm Springs. This demand was obvious when the local players in existing institutions of City Park are exposed to overcrowded conditions.
The city council recently approved temporary pickle balls on the college of the desert property in the East Baristo Road in order to serve the players during an eight -month renovation and expansion of the dishes in Demuth Park from this year. The Demuth Park project will double the number of city courts from 12 to 24 if they are completed.
This is not the first time that a private pickleball project was proposed. In December 2022, an owner group under the direction of the local entrepreneur Lauri Kibby announced plans for a 12-course indoor facility called “PickleClub” in front of Farrell Drive, with hope to open in June 2023. This upscale facilities, which would contain a fitness center, bar, spa and tablet pool, did not advance through the approval process.
No date was set for the currently proposed project to return to the planning commission.