TO COURT OVER COURTS! HOMEOWNERS SAY NO ONE ASKED BEFORE COURT CONVERSION. EXPERT CLAIM: NOISY. UNSAFE.
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2025 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — The Parkside At Boca Trail Community Association is facing a lawsuit from homeowners who say they were never asked if they wanted tennis courts to be converted into pickelball courts. The community’s board of directors, according to the suit, ordered the conversion in violation of the community’s rules and declarations.
Now, several homeowners say the the courts must be shut down — and are asking a judge to issue a temporary injunction prohibiting all pickelball activity at the community’s tennis facility. The homeowners then seek additional relief — whether financial, a return of the pickelball courts to solely tennis, a massive sound mitigation renovation, or other solution.
At issue: the amount of noise generated by pickelball and its players — noise that the Plaintiffs say violates City of Boca Raton noise ordinances and seemingly confirmed by independent sound testing. Homes close to the tennis courts — now pickelball courts — say there’s a huge difference in the amount of noise generated from pickelball — noise that wasn’t an issue when tennis was the only game being played.
The entire complaint is published, below. Here are key excerpts:
>> No Community Vote: The Parkside membership did not vote to authorize the change in the Common Spaces. The conversion occurred without a number greater than two/thirds (2/3) of all the Members of the Association and two-thirds 2/3) of all the members of the Board of Directors approval.
The Association at Parkside Maintains a Nuisance: The Association converted tennis courts to pickleball courts without considering the impact of the change in noise to the surrounding community. The noise generated by three pickleball courts in Parkside is a Nuisance to the Plaintiffs and adjoining homeowners. The noise from the pickleball courts annoys and injures the Plaintiffs, including affecting their health.
Parkside Operates the Place Where The Nuisance is Maintained: Parkside converted the developer-designed tennis courts to pickleball courts. Parkside operates and maintains the pickleball courts. Noise Emanating From Private Property Can be a Public Nuisance: Although Parkside is private property, noise emanating from private property can constitute a public nuisance. The pickleball noise causes a material annoyance, discomfort, or hurt to the public, affecting the rights and health of citizens.
Pickleball Noise is a Nuisance and Public Safety Threat: The pickleball noise meets the definition of a excessive and unnecessary noise in a residential neighborhood, disturbing and destroying the peace, and is prohibited by City of Boca Raton Ordinance. Pickleball Noise Injurious to Plaintiffs: The pickleball noise is impacting Plaintiffs’ health and well-being, as well as their quality of life. Pickleball Noise is a Nuisance: The Parkside pickleball noise is a nuisance as defined in Fla. Stat. §823.05 as it tends to annoy the community or injure the health of the community. <<
For all of its “good press,” pickelball is hugely controversial in Palm Beach County where pickelball lovers are fighting with their HOAs and tennis enthusiasts in an effort convert tennis courts into pickelball courts. Realtors claim that pickelball increases the value of homes, but there is no seemingly no data that supports the claim.
Read the complete lawsuit below. The homeowners in Parkside are represented by Keith Grumer, Esq. of Weston. The Parkside HOA had not filed a response as of Tuesday morning. Parkside is located on Military Trail just south of Palmetto Park Road.
The board should be embarrassed by what they have done. Seems all to common that a self serving board makes decisions with no consideration for what the homeowners want. And the lawsuit claims that the board president is also a local Boca politician responsible for putting unwanted pickleball courts into several areas around the city. I wonder how close his house is to the courts he installed. Hope the homeowners are ready to file a suit against the board to recoup the money it’s going to cost the association in legal costs over a game.
The challenge with all of these is HOAs often have less than 30% of people who attend meetings or get involved. Then it ends up seemingly like “more than half” of people want something, when in reality, it might just be 16% (or half of whoever shows up to a meeting). But those folks are loud. So the board thinks they are doing what residents want. then you get the backlash…
Hooray for you!!! I hope the HOA comes to their senses and closes down all the pickleball courts. Such a big nuisance across the US at many HOAs
TJ: I disagree. Anything that gets people out of their chairs stuffing their faces while watching TV is a good thing. Maybe you should try it?
The claim that the pickle courts were installed without asking the residents is non-sensical. The HOA installed the courts at the specific request of residents. Beyond that, if anyone commenting on this reads the association documents, the board is not required to get a vote of the members to make or build improvements in the recreation area. The documents simply require that actions taken are:
Done at regular publicized board meetings
Done for the general benefit of members, not to specifically benefit a board member.
These criteria were adhered to and confirmed by the HOA law firm years ago.
The bylaws do indicate a homeowner vote is required which apparently did not take place. An HOA board in Florida can’t do something just because some homeowners asked.
We had a tennis court right behind our condo changed to a pickeball court and it is very noisy most mornings because the pickleball is apparently hollow so the noise is pretty loud. I don’t know if there was any input on the decision in our complex but I can understand people’s frustration. Plus the yelling when they are playing at 7am is very loud as well!
Now, there is talk that the homeowners are going to be assessed thousands of dollars because of this lawsuit. I argue that the only one who should be paying for this is the President. And the members of the hoa board who went behind our backs as homeowners without a vote and instituted these pickleball courts. They broke the law, and now they’re expecting us to pay.
New research from Acoustical Society shows the noise can harm the health of nearby residents, with reports of suicidal thoughts and PTSD-like symptoms. The noise can trigger a our unconscious fight or flight response and needs to be taken seriously.
Maybe I am mistaken, but from what I have seen pickle ball is played on tennis courts because it is basically the same game. This complaint seems like they just want to look for a fight. Imagine the community had a baseball diamond for the common areas and some of the residents choose to play softball instead of baseball, but some resident decides that because the size of the ball is different in softball it can’t be played on a baseball diamond. You can only play tennis on a tennis court, if you use a different ball or a different racket, that is illegal!
What’s unfortunate is how preventable this situation could have been. At Memtech, we’ve worked with numerous communities and developers facing similar dilemmas. With proper consultation upfront—site-specific modeling, stakeholder input, and sound mitigation planning—many of these issues can be resolved before they turn into lawsuits or community division.
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