Austin Pickle Ranch seeks rezoning to restore rooftop pickleball operations

A request to rezone Hartland Plaza to permit the continued operation of Austin Pickle Ranch set off a contentious back and forth at last week’s Planning Commission meeting as local residents pushed for more measures to mitigate sound and light disturbances from the rooftop pickleball courts. 

Austin Pickle Ranch began its operations at Hartland Plaza, on West Sixth Street just east of MoPac Expressway, around October 2023; however, outdoor sports and recreation use was not permitted under the property’s zoning. The eight-court pickleball operation, located on top of a four-story office building and parking garage, is now seeking a change in zoning conditions to continue its operations after the city shut it down in June 2024. 

“We had a pickleball operation (at Hartland Plaza). They didn’t have the zoning to do it so it was shut down. But they would like to continue there,” said Richard Suttle, the lawyer representing the property owner. 

The local residents raised concerns to the Planning Commission about the return of the open rooftop pickleball courts in the neighborhood. 

“It’s a noise and light issue mostly; the lights and the repetitive impulse sound of the pickleball have been disrupting the neighbors,” Donna Osborn said, representing the Old West Austin Neighborhood Association (OWANA). “The neighbors wish that the pickleball court would be enclosed to mitigate the light and the noise.” 

“The sound (from the building) is an incessant, high-pitch popping of paddles hitting balls from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. at night, seven days a week. It is not a train passing in the night. It is all day long. … It’s the first thing I hear in the morning, along with the yelling of excited players, and the last thing I hear at night,” Rob Miller, a local resident, said. 

“This illegally built building affected our daily lives. I could hear pickleball through my noise-canceling earbuds while I was gardening,” Beverely Dunn, a local resident, said. 

“The courts are lit, in effect, with tennis court tower lights, only they are four stories up in the sky,” Miller said. “The jarring glare shines into my yard and into my house, into my kitchen, through the dining room, and into my living room. We requested light shields be installed and some were, but inexplicably not on all the light towers. Until the city shut the facility down … I still had the lights shining into my property every single day until they went off at 10:15 p.m. on a timer.” 

Residents also raised concerns about increased traffic at an intersection at the exit of the parking garage. 

Under the recommendations of Pickleball Sound Mitigation (PSM) Consulting LLC – an acoustic consulting service retained by OWANA – OWANA asked the Planning Commission to require the property owner to construct a 10-foot-tall sound barrier on the west side of the building and a 10-foot-tall sound barrier on the north side of the building to mitigate sound as a condition of the rezoning. 

“(These two walls) basically create an envelope where the pickleball noise is shielded from the Old West Austin neighborhood area,” Barry Wyerman, an acoustic consultant with PSM, said. 

The property owner has agreed to the 10-foot-wall barrier on the north side of the building. Instead of constructing a wall that runs the entirety of the western edge of the building, the property owner proposed extending the northern wall to cover a portion of the western side and a portion of the eastern side, creating a U-shaped barrier. This proposal would leave stretches of the west side of the building exposed. 

“We are down to slight differences in noise studies and slight differences in mitigation technique,” Suttle said. “We said we would do 10 feet along the north wall and then wrap the west. Instead of going all the way down the west with the 10-foot-tall wall, we thought we would wrap the east and the west by 10 feet (in length).” 

Commissioner Jennifer Mushtaler inquired if there was any reason the property owner could not build a full sound barrier along the west side of the building. 

The property owner was reluctant to build a wall along the entire west side of the building because it would block desirable views. The landowner also deemed the full western wall unnecessary to reduce ambient noise levels. 

Wyerman said that leaving any area on the west wall exposed could subject residents to higher sound levels. 

Andy Miller, an acoustical consultant for the Austin Pickle Ranch, assured the Planning Commission that the landowner’s proposed U-shaped barrier plan would lower the sound from the courts to 10 decibels below the average measured ambient noise levels, rendering it inaudible to the neighbors. 

With respect to lighting, Suttle admitted there was room for improvement in the current conditions. 

While the lights are partially shielded currently, Austin Pickle Ranch is “willing to reduce the lights from 5,000 Kelvin to 3,000 and fully shield the lights, and we think that ought to get the light out of the neighborhood,” Suttle said. 

The Planning Commission explored different pathways to move forward but ultimately voted to postpone a decision until Sept. 24 to offer the neighborhood and Austin Pickle Ranch more time to work through logistics and seek additional negotiation and resolution among themselves. 

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Posted In: Zoning, District 9