The Site
Pickleball has been the fastest growing sport in the US for each of the last three years. Monterey has also seen an explosion of new players following the Covid-19 pandemic. So, the local pickleball community has been trying to work with city governments to expand and improve pickleball facilities. Unfortunately, existing public parks with pickleball courts on the Monterey Peninsula are all nestled within residential communities and have little to no noise buffer between the courts and homes. With large numbers of players flocking to these courts, residents have mobilized and they have worked with their city governments to restrict pickleball play. To address the need for more courts while respecting neighbor concerns, Michael Lang submitted a proposal to the City of Monterey's Neighborhood and Community Improvement Program (NCIP) in Feb 2023 to design 8 pickleball courts into Ryan Ranch park. The City had previously funded a feasibility study that identified Ryan Ranch as the best site for new pickleball courts. In October of 2023, the Monterey City Council authorized $100,000 to fund the design of this project. Ryan Ranch park is a 75 acre park conveniently located near the Monterey Airport at the intersections of highways 68 and 218. This predominantly open space park is popular with walkers and is the home of the Monterey Stinging Jellies disc golf club. The surrounding community consists of office parks and light industrial businesses. This site is no stranger to noise because it is located in the MRY airport landing zone and adjacent to a recycling plant.
Current Status
On November 30, 2023, a group of pickleball players met with Hans Uslar, Monterey City Manager, along with other members of the City staff to discuss the project. The plan is that Reggie Paulding, Senior Engineer with the City of Monterey, will take it from here. He will most likely solicit bids from outside firms to design the courts and surrounding infrastructure. As the project applicant, Michael Lang will work with Reggie as needed to provide guidance and assistance from a pickleball player's perspective. He communicated to Reggie that pickleball players are more than happy to help in any way possible. That said, the City has a well defined process for these projects and the pickleball community will need to allow the process to follow its course. Reggie and Michael have aggreed to meet every 3 months going forward for project updates.
How You Can Help
The City estimates it will cost $400,000 or more to build the courts. MBPC hopes to raise $100,000 to contribute to this project. That said, the details of how that donation would occur still need to be ironed out. For now, we are only able to accept cash donations. Once the project reaches an appropriate point, we may be able to allow the purchase of engraved pavers, benches, and court or facility naming rights. But the details of those offerings would need to be worked out with the City before we can make them available.
Other Ways to Help
The Monterey City Manager recently spoke out against pickleball in his State of the City address to the City Council. So, words of support for the project are desperately needed at this time.
If you are a resident or land owner in Monterey, please consider writing a short email to your City Council and NCIP representatives to let them know what pickleball means to you. A couple sentences about how pickleball has affected your life can really help. The mere fact that you took the time to send them a message carries weight. If you don't live in Monterey, but have friends that do, please encourage them to reach out to their representatives.
You can reach the NCIP committee at the email address below. In your email, request that your message be forwarded to all committee members. Please let them know the name of your Monterey Neighborhood if you know it.
engineering-admin@monterey.org
The email addresses for City Council members may be found on the left side of this page:
https://monterey.org/city_hall/city_council/meet_the_mayor_and_council.php
Contingency Plans
The Monterey Bay Pickleball Club is supporting this effort by hosting this communication platform and collecting donations with the intention of donating them to the City of Monterey for the construction of these courts. Some have asked what will happen to the money if the City does not want or need the funds for construction, or if the project encounters a fatal roadblock during the design phase.
In this case, the donations will go into the MBPC general fund to be used for other public pickleball purposes. The MBPC board of directors would determine how to best spend these funds for the benefit of the local pickleball community. This could include:
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Donating the money to other local pickleball projects such as resurfacing the Wheeler Tennis courts.
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Donating the money for construction of new pickleball courts in other municipalities on the Peninsula.
Site Overview Video
This is a short video from Google Earth. The yellow pins mark the likely building site within the 75 acre Ryan Ranch park. This location is currently used as a storage yard by the City of Monterey.
Design Inspiration
The inspirational images below provide a glimpse of the potential this project holds. Unlike other courts on the peninsula, this is a "from scratch" dedicated pickleball development so there are many possibilities. If you would like to comment on the facility, send email to montereypickleball@outlook.com.
