Expand / Collapse search
☰

A push to let the pickleballs fly at Maple Grove

By
Published  May 14, 2025 6:43pm CDT
Maple Grove
FOX 9
Petition challenges Maple Grove park pickleball ban

Petition challenges Maple Grove park pickleball ban

Pickleball is no longer allowed at Maple Grove's Fish Lake Woods Park, but a neighbor's petition hopes to reverse course. FOX 9's Rob Olson has the full story.

The Brief

    • After noise complaints, Maple Grove banned pickleball from Fish Lake Woods Park in early May.
    • A petition to get the city to reverse course has more than 300 signatures, with supporters planning to attend the parks and recreation board meeting Thursday night.
    • The city says the courts are too close to homes and sound abatement proved too expensive for the difference it would make.

MAPLE GROVE, Minn. (FOX 9) - About 10 years ago, pickleball stripes were added to the two tennis courts at Maple Grove’s Fish Lake Woods Park.

When the game picked up popularity during the pandemic, the courts began getting a lot more use. With that, more noise, which led to the pickleball stripes getting removed in early May and signs going up saying the game was no longer allowed here.

"Yeah, I didn’t know if it was real, we didn’t receive any notice," said neighbor John Messerly. "There wasn’t any opportunity for public comment."

A petition to bring the game back 

Big picture view:

As soon as he saw the signs banning the sport here, Messerly began an online change.org petition to bring it back.

He and his wife picked up the game during the pandemic, as so many people did, and enjoyed the fact the courts were just a few hundred feet from his back door.

With over 300 signatures so far, supporters also plan to attend Thursday night’s Park and Rec board meeting to push the board during the public comment period.

"We’re open to compromise, we don’t want to push people around or railroad them," Messerly told Fox 9.  "We just want to do the sport we’ve been playing for at least four years here."

A noisy game 

The backstory:

Maple Grove’s Parks Superintendent told Fox 9 that the first complaint came last fall from homeowners who live just 75 feet from the courts. He said other complaints followed.

They looked at adding noise barriers, but those proved too expensive, since they couldn’t guarantee that they would fix the noise issue.

Pickleball is a noisy game. Other cities have wrestled with the same issues.

When Maple Grove looked at what other cities have done, they found a general guideline of keeping courts at least 150 to 200 feet away from homes.  

Pickleball at Fish Lake Woods Park just wasn’t a good fit and they decided this spring to close the courts to the game.

Divided neighbors 

What's next:

As FOX 9 spoke to John about his pickleball petition, another neighbor emerged on her deck, holding a sign that read "Bring Back Pickleball."

She lives about as close as the neighbors who complained. 

"I’m glad to see other people are onboard," said Messerly.  "The community likes this sport, the community wants it."

The city has 28 dedicated pickleball courts, with more to come. And they tell us they’re now being very careful when it comes to pickleball placement.

But Messerly believes noise just comes with the territory when you live next to a park.

"It is a noisy game, I understand that.  The playground is a noisy place, the basketball court is noisy.   I live next to a park, I expect to have noise."

Maple GroveSports