Design for one of the planned courts.
Break out the paddles, because indoor pickleball is coming to town.
City Plan Commissioners voted unanimously during their latest meeting Wednesday night to permit a plan to bring indoor pickleball courts to the corner of Blake Street and Whalley Avenue.
That means Pickleville CT LLC, the holding company controlled by Harrison Blume that applied for that city approval, has the tentative go-ahead to build a new two-story facility at 1 Valley St.
The development will replace a tiered parking lot currently located at that property, which is across the street from an under-construction housing complex at 500 Blake St. and adjacent to the long-vacant Church of Scientology-owned former Hallock’s building. The idea is to create three indoor courts with 17 parking spots for patrons.
Read about the project in more detail in this previous story. Here’s the organization’s website.
“Pickleball is exploding in popularity,” attorney Ben Trachten, who is representing the project, told commissioners over Zoom Wednesday night. “This will allow year-round play for enthusiasts … As a Westville resident with two kids who play pickleball, I think this is an incredible amenity.”
Commissioners approved both site plan review and coastal site plan review for the project after a brief debate concerning the potential traffic impact of the pickleball facility.
The extant parking lot at Valley and Blake has multiple entrances and exits, but the incoming site would provide only one access route for vehicles along Blake Street.
Commissioner Adam Marchand expressed concern that Blake Street, in particular, is too tight of a street to locate the sole entry for the new parking lot.
“I don’t use this lot a lot,” he said. He usually parks just above the lower lot along Whalley, he said, because it offers opportunities to charge his electric car. “But now there’s plenty of places to get into that surface lot on Valley Street. It’s pretty easy access off of Valley. This would change this so there’s only one entrance.
“If you had a different entry for where to put that ingress and egress, I think you would want it,” Marchand said. “That strikes me as a bit of a tight fit.”
Chair Leslie Radcliffe agreed: “If you’re coming down Blake Street and your intention is to turn left into the property, it’s gonna be bad. You could have traffic backed up on Valley, Blake and Whalley.”
Trachten said that the Blake and Valley Streets intersection is already set for redesign in tandem with a new housing complex underway. The current parking lot has 70 spots, he said, but this project would reduce traffic to a maximum of 17 parkers at any given point in time. It was unlikely, he concluded, that the development would exacerbate whatever chaos has long existed around the area. Even construction around the site, he noted, like establishing curbing and sidewalks, should involve only “minimal impact” along Valley Street.
“It’s not like this is gonna be a major traffic generator in the area,” engineer David Nafis argued. “It’s mostly three to four cars coming in to play pickleball and then leaving.”
Commissioner Joshua Van Hoesen eased commissioners’ concerns prior to the unanimous votes: “I park there all the time when I go down there for brunch … There’s actually a dedicated turning lane to the left of that side [of Blake Street], so it’s incredibly easy to get into the lot. I think this is a good set up.”
BZA photo
The Valley Street parking lot.
Then what happens in a few years when/if the pickleball fad fades?