Pickleball
Court capacity and scheduling, pressed at length by players over the cap on courts at Meerscheidt.
The timeline
- August 21, 2025New impact fees, four new playgrounds, and a $192 million question headed to Council
A four-member board heard that the city's park impact fees were rewritten by square footage and took effect July 7, falling 22% for the smallest units and rising 42% for larger homes. Staff reported four playgrounds replaced in the last fiscal year and an East Mesa Pool that lost five weeks of the season to two pipe breaks. The director previewed a City Council work session on bonding against a voter-approved GRT increase totaling $192 million.
- January 16, 2025Villa Mora Dam Park approved; two years of dog park rules finally land
Six of seven board members met at City Hall and approved a design concept for a new neighborhood park on the old Villa Mora check-dam site. Staff reported the dog park rules had finished a two-year review, and a member of the public asked the board to raise the pickleball attendance cap at Meerscheidt from 44 to about 50.
- April 20, 2023A fee schedule passes by acclamation with its language still to be written
The board approved the 2023-2024 Fees and Charges and Facility Use Policy "with language added regarding bathroom use and field rental process" — language that did not yet exist when the vote was taken. A motion to table the item to May died, and the reason given on the record was that the policy is already in the queue for City Council in May. Public Participation: "There was none."
- May 26, 2022"Next week he will file a discrimination thing with the City"
A former board member told the board that disabled veterans cannot use the Apodaca pickleball courts because there is no restroom and an 8.1% grade, that he would file a discrimination complaint the following week, and that the city wastes roughly a third of its GO Bond money by issuing RFPs instead of bidding work. The board then approved a $8,000 crosswalk-art project whose preparations had already begun and whose press release had already gone out.
- April 21, 2022Cricket players, dog walkers and a shooting club fill the room
A three-member board with four vacant seats took eight public speakers, then approved the 2021/2022 fees and facility use policy, master plans for Branigan, Gomez and Frenger parks, and the final design for the Pioneer Women's Park gazebo. Staff confirmed Frenger Pool is proposed for removal and would not pass inspection if the new 50-meter pool were online.
- February 18, 2021GO Bond program at 26% on time, and the District 5 park gets a number: $675,000
Held via Zoom webinar. Public Works reported the GO Bond park program is 26% on time and 32% on cash, with Apodaca courts due in May and demolition started at Young Park. Staff said the new District 5 park has a funding source of approximately $675,000 from the Philippou settlement. Board members reported that three City Councilors each described the resolution as a one-off.
- August 20, 2020Two dozen players write in against the 45-minute court rule — and the board takes no action
The board met on Zoom with no action items on its agenda while a court reservation policy taking effect four days later drew about two dozen emailed public comments, printed in full across pages 11 to 49 of this document. The Chair read the emails aloud; the board took no vote on the policy, and the Director committed to answering every writer individually within 48 hours.
- August 20, 2020The same meeting, filed without the emails: ten pages that say the Chair read them
This is the city's ten-page filing of the August 20, 2020 board meeting — the minutes with no attachments. It records that the Chair read all emails submitted about the pickle ball and tennis scheduling change, that the board took no action on the policy, and that the Director committed to answering every writer within 48 hours. The emails themselves are in the other filing of the same meeting.
- June 18, 2020Two GO Bond plans go forward on Zoom, and a resident asks who is paying for the entry road
Meeting by Zoom for the first regular session since February, the board accepted the East Mesa Recreation Complex master plan presentation to move to City Council and approved the Parks & Sports Courts improvements. Three emailed public comments were read verbatim, one of them alleging that entry road funding had been taken "directly from the Go Bond funding as feared" — which the Interim Public Works Director denied on the record. A power outage cost one member his vote.
- February 20, 2020"Just putting another band aid" — tennis and pickleball push back on the GO Bond court plan
The first presentation of the GO Bond sports court rehabilitation to the board drew sustained objection from tennis and pickleball players, who said earlier meetings had led them to expect full resurfacing and professional-grade courts rather than crack repair. The board tabled the action to a special meeting and asked for two revisions — one with as much professional grade as possible, one showing what the existing money buys. A parent also told the board a discrimination complaint he filed in December 2018 was still unresolved.