CITY OF KATY, Texas (Covering Katy News)—The Katy City Council rejected a proposal, submitted at its Dec. 8 meeting, to turn two of the six tennis courts at Katy City Park into pickleball courts.
Instead, the council directed Parks Director Kevin Browne to speak with the contractor about adding pickleball lines to two of the tennis courts, thereby enabling either game to be played on those courts.
With that directive, the council approved a series of measures comprising a plan to upgrade the park, 5850 Franz Road at Avenue D. The total project cost is about $2.4 million, according to city documents. This includes a $1.1 million bid from Paragon Sports Construction for the installation of synthetic turf and a $210,000 bid from Siteco Lighting US for the installation of the lights.
Katy residents speak out against removing tennis courts at city park
The rejection of the pickleball courts plan came after public feedback expressing opposition to losing the tennis courts.
Alan Walker, a Katy resident, said during the public comments portion of the meeting that the Katy City Park tennis courts were the only place he could play tennis at night. He said Katy High School's courts could have their lights turned off at any time by school officials, while Katy Junior High School has no lights at all.
"There are six courts, and I see those courts packed every night," Walker said, adding that he would support painting pickleball lines on tennis courts if necessary.
Another speaker said there were 37 private pickleball courts in the Katy area.
Browne said later that while he did not look up how many other public tennis courts there are, there were significantly more private pickleball courts in the area than public tennis courts.
Other speakers also advocated for painting pickleball lines if necessary to prevent the removal of the tennis courts.
Katy City Park pickleball striping costs still unclear
Browne said city staff discussed the idea of simply adding pickleball stripes to the existing courts, instead of transforming the courts from tennis to pickleball, when first making plans for park improvements two years ago. The council could choose whether to pursue pickleball striping or transforming the courts.
"Pickleball and tennis users are very different groups, generally speaking, and in most of the areas, most of the cities I've worked in the past, they do not like to share the resources," Browne said. "So, it's been my opinion since the get-go that they should be separate. We ended up back at this situation strictly because it was going to be cost prohibitive to continue trying to pursue the separate pickleball courts within the scope of this project. But generally speaking, I would say it is better if pickleball has its own courts. Tennis has their own courts. But that's not to say that they can't be on the same footprint."
Council Member-at-Large and Mayor Pro Tem Chris Harris asked Browne how striping the tennis courts would affect the bid. Browne said he presumed the amount would be lowered because it would be a smaller scope of work, but did not have a figure. He said he would have to visit with the contractor.
Mayor Dusty Thiele asked Browne if the park had room for new courts just for pickleball. Browne said he would not recommend Katy City Park if the city wanted to construct such courts. He said installing separate courts at Katy City Park presented new drainage and safety issues.
Katy City Park tennis courts remain popular with players
"I drive by there every night on Avenue D, and they're packed," Ward B Council Member Rory Robertson said. "They're always full, and so taking away two of them just is going to cause a problem. To meet the needs of the pickleball fans, we have to find a different solution because taking away these two tennis courts will be detrimental."
Ward B Council Member Gina Hicks said she shared Harris' concern about losing tennis courts.
"I'm concerned about losing whatever we have," Hicks said.
Ward A Council Member Janet Corte said Browne's willingness to review the plan demonstrates responsiveness to public input.
"The Parks Director held several open meetings at the Civic Center for residents to express what improvements were desired," Corte said. "Tennis courts were not mentioned much, if at all, but pickleball was in great demand. To Kevin's (Browne) credit he is revisiting the presented plan to determine how to incorporate both tennis and pickleball courts."