FALMOUTH, MASS. (WHDH) - A set of pickleball courts on Cape Cod are closed for the time being after neighbors complained about noise from the popular game.
The group in Falmouth had a sound study conducted and hired an attorney after they said the noise in the area was unbearable. A Barnstable Superior Court judge then ordered the courts closed.
“It’s a piercing sound,” said area resident Jon Churchill of the pickleball sound.
The pickleball courts in question are situated at the Lawrence School in Falmouth.
Churchill lives 80 feet from the courts and can see them from his backyard.
“I wear headphones, sometimes, when I’m outside,” he said. “I can’t sit on the deck. I haven’t sat on the deck in two years.”
Fellow area resident Dustin Fauth said he can’t escape the sound.
“Inside our house, it goes through the windows, kind of through the walls,” Fauth said. “Our bedroom actually faces it so, laying down, taking a nap, going to bed at night, it would be constant ‘Pop, pop, pop.’”
Altogether, six people living close to the courts said they filed for an injunction to stop local pickleball play after two years spent fighting for restricted hours of play or a sound barrier.
“It would be like maybe having a shooting range or maybe a motocross track in your backyard,” Fauth said.
As pickleball has grown in popularity across the nation, so have complaints about its volume and pitch.
Earlier this year, Wellesley held a meeting trying to figure out how to deal with the issue.
“It’s very disruptive,” said Falmouth resident Michael Galasso.
Galasso continued, saying he has had one neighbor move away because of the sound.
While Falmouth residents involved in recent court proceedings said they didn’t want to make a racket, they also said they want other communities to take notice.
“Hopefully towns do forward planning and they reach out to the neighbors and they do some studies before they go ahead and just decide to put a pickleball court in the middle of a neighborhood,” Galasso said.
The six Falmouth neighbors who recently filed for an injunction to stop pickleball games said they’ve met with their town manager and hope they can come to an agreement to avoid further steps in the court system.
If they don’t reach an agreement, there is a pretrial hearing set for October.
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