Walk among the trees of this suburban Virginia park, perk up an ear and you can hear the sounds of children splashing in the community pool alongside the unmistakable plink, plink, plink of pickleball.
But the Fairfax County Park Authority sees things differently: In their view, the two courts tucked away in Kendale Woods Park are for tennis. And tennis only.
The divergent views of what sport can be played on the courts has turned the idyllic community park into a suburban battleground. Residents say county workers have taken their nets, scrubbed their stenciled pickleball lines and hired security to be present while workers made the fenced-in area suitable for tennis. Residents, meanwhile, have petitioned community members, consulted with an attorney and even staged a sit-in here, hoping to preserve the area for pickleball.
“We stopped the original power washers from going in there,” said Monica Gonzales, 54, who was one of the handful of pickleball-playing women who unfolded lawn chairs during a sit-in last month in a last-ditch effort to deter changes that would make the courts better for tennis.
“But it was very peaceful. No negative words were exchanged,” she added.
Before June 24, the courts at Kendale Woods Park had county-installed blue line markings for pickleball within its white tennis lines. That month, the Fairfax County Park Authority followed through on plans announced in May to convert the courts to “tennis-only,” asserting it was doing so “in response to concerns raised by the surrounding community pertaining to noise.” Kendale, the Park Authority added, “does not meet the court guidelines established with national best practices” identified in a December 2021 report.
A person claiming to reside in a home neighboring the courts wrote on the local news website Annandale Today: “I can hear the playing in the master bedroom with windows closed. My dog doesn’t want to stay in the backyard when there is playing.”
“I feel insulted every time people try to dismiss the problem,” said the commenter, who did not return messages from The Washington Post. “I cannot move the property.”
Players say they are skeptical that the county has been flooded with noise complaints. They have disputed the alleged severity of the sound by conducting their own decibel-level checks with their phones and pouring through county guidelines regarding permissible noise. They assert that the county wouldn’t work with them to come up with an agreement to make everyone happy.
“We don’t want to dismiss the person who finds this noise bothersome,” Sarah Wysocki said. “It’s how can we work with you to find a compromise? But to be told that there is no compromise and that this is what it is and basing this decision off one person? That’s a very slippery slope.”
“It’s not us versus them,” she added. The 44-year-old Annandale resident and middle school teacher says the goal has “always” been to find a “compromise and come up with a peaceful resolution.”
The Park Authority noted in a statement that residents can use many other courts designed for pickleball; Fairfax County has joined other localities nearby and nationwide in beefing up such accommodations amid the spike in popularity of the sport before and throughout the pandemic. The Park Authority said it has added 54 pickleball courts since 2021. The activity’s growth nationally has dovetailed with concerns about its sound.
“FCPA welcomes pickleball players from the Kendale Woods Park Community to use the 16 other pickleball courts located within 5 miles of Kendale Woods Park,” the Park Authority said in a statement to The Washington Post. “While we understand the decision for Kendale Woods Park is not the outcome some residents were hoping for, we are excited to continue growing with this community in Fairfax County.”
Residents say they want to keep what’s theirs.
“Telling us to go to one of 16 other courts?” Wysocki said, “I mean, why would we go to another court when our pool is right there? Our homes are right here.”
And for now, past the “tennis only” placard affixed near the entrance gate and within earshot of neighbors, residents play on.
They lay down a stencil to chalk out their own lines, hoping they won’t soon be washed away by county workers. Work in tandem to unfurl and set up their own nets. Hoist their paddles. Then they serve.
