Updated 10/10/2025 

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At its October 7, 2025 meeting, the Carmel City Council voted to ban pickleball outright at Forest Hill Park.  City staff provided two options: allow play with the current restrictions to continue, or ban play.  There was never any discussion about allowing play to continue as is.  Council member Hans Buder summed it up when he said "We're not comfortable with unmitigated pickleball noise at the park".

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The approved ban ordinance, however, includes a clause about continuing to evaluate sound mitigation options.  All of the council members felt the acoustic fencing at Morris Dill in PG was completely ineffective based on independent site visits over the past month.  There was some discussion about PickleGlass which is another sound attenuating product that may be more effective.  However, it can cost upwards of $200K and the Council seemed unlikely to pursue it without a high level of confidence that it would actually solve the problem.

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Most of the sound mitigation discussion revolved around  quiet balls.  By my count, 2 council members were in favor of a quiet ball trial, 2 were against, and 1 was undecided.  The proposed trial would have the city providing a box of quiet balls for players to use with fines for players that don't use them.  The final motion was not very clear, but it seems that, in addition to banning play immediately, city staff is supposed to come back next month with options for a trial program using quiet balls.  The council would then decide whether or not they want to purse one of those options.  It's unclear how long it would be before a trial begins if one is approved by the council.  

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Below are the email addresses of the the council members in case you would like advocate for a quiet ball trial.  Councilmembers Delves, Baron, and Buder spoke most favorably of the quiet balls with the proponent being Councilmember Buder.  Councilmember Dramov and Mayor Byrne are staunchly opposed to any pickleball play in the park.

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dbyrne@ci.carmel.ca.us - Dale Byrne (Mayor)

adramov@ci.carmel.ca.us - Alissandra Dramov

rdelves@ci.carmel.ca.us - Bob Delves

jbaron@ci.carmel.ca.us - Jeff Baron

hbuder@ci.carmel.ca.us - Hans Buder​

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The primary obstacle to quiet ball play in the park is enforcement.  Even Council member Delves, who is in favor of allowing the quiet ball and is an avid player himself, concedes that it may not be a viable option due to enforcement.  They believe if pickleball nets there, some players are going ignore the signage and city provided box of quiet balls and use their own real balls.  So, it may be helpful to send letters to the councilmembers with clever ideas on how to ensure players only use the quiet balls.  Additionally, encourage them to not run a trial over the holidays when tourist play is high because that will distort the statistics.

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On the positive side, Mayor Byrne mentioned that Carmel middle school has allocated one of their four tennis courts to pickleball play.  In addition, they are planning to enhance their pickleball courts by next September as the district adds more tennis courts to replace those lost at Carmel high school.  Unfortunately, the Mayor's comments were not very clear, so some further investigation is needed to understand exactly what the current and future pickleball offerings will be.  Regardless, play is open to the public during non-school hours: after 3:30pm on weekdays during the school year, all day on weekends, and all day weekdays during the summer.​​​