Longboat pickleball expansion contingent on parking

The town of Longboat Key is seeking ways to satisfy pickleball players, yogis and casual Bayfront Park-goers.

The main issue at hand is the lack of parking at the park, particularly in the morning.

"The pickleball folks are taking up too much of the parking and not allowing other people that want to use the park today," Commissioner Mike Haycock said.

The discussion started when pickleball players came to multiple commission meetings to express their desire for additional courts — or at least the temporary use of tennis courts at the park that tend to be empty during peak hours of pickleball play. 

At peak times, resident and pickleball fan Dave Levine said as many as 40 people can be waiting to use the courts. The current courts allow for 20 people to play at one time. 

Currently, there are three dedicated, permanent pickleball courts and two shared pickleball playing areas at the park. 

Important considerations town staff encouraged commissioners to keep in mind include: 

• Bayfront Park is an open-to-the-public and first-come, first-served town park with multiple amenities serving a variety of users in a designed and balanced fashion.
• The intent is maintain beauty, amenities and ambiance of the park, which is why no considerations were given to adding pickleball or parking to the open field area. 
• Parking is limited at the park and ideally available as much as possible for all users. 
• It is not the intent to make Bayfront Park a pickleball magnet. 
• Private properties have been converting their own spaces into pickleball to address demand. The current count on the Key is 57 courts. 
• The higher pickleball demand at Bayfront Park tends to be highly seasonal and focused in the mornings.

According to the staff report, the town’s Public Works department is of the opinion that the current state of the park is best to ensure that all amenities are equally accommodated. 

“Since afternoons tend to have far more pickleball capacity, the natural solution would be for pickleball players to come back in the afternoon or evenings when there is more capacity for play,” the staff memo said. 

Public Works staff suggested adding five to six overflow parking spaces at the south end of the park to help accommodate more parkgoers.

Currently, there are 52 regular parking spaces, seven accessible spaces and one dedicated electric vehicle charging spot. 

“I don’t think you can fix the parking problem I saw last week with six spots for the people who are taking other classes and paying money to be there,” Commissioner BJ Bishop said. 

Individuals who attended yoga classes Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Bayfront Park Recreation Center came to the commission workshop to express their frustration with lack of available parking spaces. Class members pay a fee to attend the courses with a portion of the fee going directly to the town for use of the center. 

“We never had a problem parking when they were tennis courts,” resident Donna Patterson said. “The problem has started with pickleball. … I understand it's a community park. We are part of that community.”

Patterson said she has been a resident of the Key for 16 years. Fourteen of those years she has participated in yoga classes at the Recreation Center. 

“All we want is a parking spot for one hour two days a week,” she said. 

The yoga classes take place every Tuesday and Thursday at 10:30 a.m. 

Ultimately, the Town Commission decided to enter a pilot project to temporarily tape off the only dedicated tennis court for use by pickleball players during peak hours. Commissioners Bishop and Sherry Dominick were against the proposal. 

“I do support the pilot,” Commissioner Maureen Merrigan said. “One hypothesis is that it will cycle people through faster. It might get more people from waiting to actually playing.”

The project is set to occur only if a condition is met — an agreement must be reached with Columbia Restaurant Group for use of its empty lot for additional parking. 

Commissioners agreed that the additional five or six spots are needed in the interim. 

The project would only run until May 2023. From there, commissioners would have the opportunity to revisit the issue to see if the additional court alleviated any parking strain. 

However, if no agreement is entered for the additional parking spots, the tennis court will not be taped to accommodate pickleball play. 

If the temporary taping moves forward, the additional court will follow the “round robin” style of sharing with tennis players that is already used on the shared court. 

Pickleball players have priority Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tennis players have priority Tuesday and Thursday. 

In afternoons, evenings and weekends, the courts remain first come, first served.