The Sedona City Council unanimously approved budgeting $100,000 to hire engineers to design a set of eight new pickleball courts at Posse Grounds Park during its Tuesday, July 11 meeting.

The proposal for new dedicated pickleball courts calls for the replacement of a portion of the north softball field with courts, shade structures and two parking areas with fifty stalls. Construction would begin in the spring of 2024.

According to city finance director Cherie White, design costs are estimated at $81,880 and construction costs at $1.54 million.

“The project will include up to eight pickleball courts with lighting,” the city agenda bill for the proposal stated. “It will also include benches, drinking/refilling water station installation, chain-link fencing and gates, a sport court lighting system with timer, waste receptacles and parking. Restrooms [sic] improvements in this area are programmed to be completed as a future project, with design planned for FY 25 and construction in FY 26. The courts will be oriented north to south. Parking and ADA access will be part of the design.” 

Softball games, rentals and other uses will be consolidated at the south softball field.

“[As a] whole, adult sports that are set up to come in for a whole season have been declining nationwide, whether that’s adult volleyball or softball,” Parks and Recreation manager Josh Frewin said. “People just aren’t committing for a full season and taking the initiative to get people together on a team.”

A study by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association showed that over a third of slow-pitch softball players have left the sport since 2000. Meanwhile, data from USA Pickleball and the Sports and Fitness Industry Association suggests that pickleball’s popularity has grown annually by nearly 12% over the last five years to 4.8 million participantsnationally.

Locally, that increase in pickleball’s popularity has caused long wait times at the shared tennis and pickleball facilities at Posse Grounds Park.

“We have open play in the morning and the evening,” USA Pickleball Ambassador Christine Sturgeon said, discussing Sedona’s 200-300 pickleballers.

“There have been times where there have been 30 to 40 people on the court. A lot of the demand, besides the residents, is increased by the visitors to our area. Pickleball, because it’s expanding, people as they travel are looking to play where they’re traveling.”

Noise

“The courts will be more than 400 feet from the nearest home, and according to [a] study, if you’re 400 feet away, that lowers the sound to a normal conversation level of 58 decibels,” Assistant Director of Public Works Sandra Phillips told the council. “[We] also intend with this design phase that we’re going to go into is to do a sound study. We’re aware of curtains and some other things that we can do to mitigate noise. But we want to take some before measurements, and take a look at what the current condition is so we’ve got a baseline.”

The city has not yet had any noise complaints about pickleball matches currently being played on the tennis courts, and the proposed courts will be adjacent to the existing tennis courts, which will be resurfaced and revert to dedicated tennis use once the pickleball courts are completed.

The current plan calls for locating the courts over the existing infield of the north softball field to reduce the effects on the grass.

“Some of the concerns we saw from comments that we received is a lot of people treasure the grass,” Phillips said. “That’s also a water concern to other residents and for the council. We see saving some of the grass for other uses. We don’t see right now impacting those mature trees. There is an existing concession that needs some work. That’s not something that’s planned currently that would be a future project. We’ve got it slated for [FY] 25-26.”

Summer Public Works 

The disc golf course at the north end of Posse Grounds Park is currently at 90% completion and does not currently have a completion date.

“It’s in progress,” Director of Public Works Kurtis Harris said. “There were some issues; one of [the holes] got stolen, and one of the disc golfers loaned one to us. We have to get a replacement.”

Work is ongoing at the Ranger Station Park on 250 Brewer Road, where a shared use path is currently being graded and concrete will be poured in the near future. The city is working on detention basins ahead of summer thunderstorms. Harris said that the interior design work for the renovation of the historic buildings on the property is scheduled to begin in August.

Replacement of the exterior bollards at the Sedona Magistrate Court at 221 Brewer Road is scheduled for July. The city has ordered the bollards and will be installing them, although the property is leased from the Sedona- Oak Creek School District.

“We were under the expectation [under] the agreement that [SOCSD] were going to have their maintenance guys repair them and [it] never happened,” Harris said. SOCSD’s inability to pay for repairs to the former Big Park school campus is a major reason that the district is currently seeking to lease the entire property to Yavapai County.

The proposed agreement between the school district and the county would require the county to pay for the cost of roof repairs at the Big Park property.

Other public works projects scheduled for July include replacement of the concrete at city hall, the installation of a water bottle filling station at the Sedona Heritage Museum, and repairs to the scoreboard at Posse Grounds Park. The basketball courts at Posse Grounds Park are also currently closed for resurfacing for the next few weeks, with six weeks being a worst-case scenario. While repairs are underway, residents can use the basketball courts at Sunset Park and the open gym at West Sedona School.