After almost four years of trying to prohibit the construction of pickleball courts in Chilmark, the town planning board has settled on what members hope will be their final proposal to banish the sport of plastic popping sounds from the town.
The board’s new proposed amendment to Chilmark’s zoning bylaws, expected to go on a future town meeting warrant, would omit any mention of pickleball courts in permitted uses, effectively eliminating the option for residents to construct new courts. The board voted Monday to start a public hearing process for the amendment.
This is the town’s third attempt to tamp down the sport, which produces a loud thwacking sound and has been a source of complaints.
The Chilmark select board was asked to approve the draft article two weeks ago, sending it to the planning board to restart the public hearing process. The select board unanimously approved the draft article, but did have questions on the need.
“How big of a problem is this?” asked select board member Jeffrey Maida in February.
Public hearings for previously proposed amendments saw residents opposing the sport’s place in the town on account of the noise.
The last iteration of the effort was a bylaw that would require “documented noise intrusion” of new sports courts be at least 600 feet away from a property boundary line. The planning board abandoned this tactic, citing difficulties in establishing definitive noise pollution levels.
While the new, simpler approach eliminates the definition of tennis court, which “includes pickleball, platform tennis and a similar sports court,” tennis courts will still be permissible, planning board member Ann Wallace clarified. A separate definition for tennis courts is listed under special use permits in zoning bylaws.
Some planning board members expressed concern over people using pickleball equipment on tennis courts, producing the same loud thwacking sound.
“Enforcement is a question, and a burden,” said Ms. Wallace.
The amendment likely does not outlaw playing pickleball in Chilmark, or repurposing existing tennis courts for pickleball, according to town attorney Michael Goldsmith. If tennis or pickleball courts were constructed at a time when pickleball was allowed, pickleball could likely continue in those places.
"I think the zoning officer may run into problems with seeking enforcement,” Mr. Goldsmith wrote in an email to the town. “Owners would contend they are protected as preexisting, nonconforming uses…and they likely are.”
Pickleball would still be subject to nuisance and noise complaints. But other planning board members said it’s not an issue unless the noise gets too loud.
“If no one complains, why do we care?” said board member Hugh Weisman.
The planning board expressed light remorse at attempting to box out a sport that is “fun, great exercise and gets folks out of the house,” said planning board member Janet Weidner. If future versions of equipment produce less sound, the board would reconsider the bylaws to allow for new pickleball courts, she added.
The first public hearing on “pickleball 3.0,” as the planning board referred to it, will be held March 23 at 4:45 p.m.
This article appears in March 6, 2026.
I am wondering how fast a law that specifically targets Pickle Ball courts, rather than any other type of sports facilities, will be declared unconstitutional?
It’s not like other sports are conducted silently.
Why is Chilmark wasting its time on this one?
Easy fix. Want a pickle ball court in Chilmark? Erect an ADU (under 400sqft) and house/lease to a year-round islander tenant. Win-win.
I find pickle ball noise very annoying. I think you should need to have a certain buffer to install…. Trees etc….
I enjoy my quiet time….
I am with Total Platform Tennis. We build platform courts and Padel courts all over the U.S. Many locations that have added pickle ball use a product called Acousta-fence. It is basically a sound barrier that hangs on the fence like a windcsreen. It works well to drown out the sound of the pickleball.
While participant in the sport myself, my wife is an enthusiast. She tells me there are now quieter alternatives to the standard paddles and balls. I’d provide links, but anyone can look this up themselves. Maybe they should consider regulating the noise and not the sport.
That may have been 2.0. The article notes no criteria could be established. Creating criteria and not banning the sport seems like it has a better chance of being fair. A sound buffering fence could be employed to block the majority of the sound.
Its kinda hard to believe people get mad at the sound of other people having a good time…enjoying life…..
… How ridiculous, regulations against pickleball for noise? Meanwhile private jets are allowed to fly into the airport at 3am no problem. The island has its priorities totally backwards.
Over build any beauty spot and this is what happens.
In Edgartown and Chappy the noise problem is the biplane buzzing round and round overhead all day long. On cloudy days the plane flies low. And sometimes the noise is so loud it drives you inside.
And then there are the leaf blowers all around and as soon as that season arrive the noise stars at 7:00am and doesn’t stop sometimes until dark.
The horrors of the leaf blowing is that it destroys the habit of billions of beneficial insects, arachnids, and small mammals so early enough in the season that they die of exposure resulting in an environmental holocaust.
In comparison, I have no sympathy for pickle ball noise.
The Island got what it asked for and, as now it wants something different.
We are well and truly …… and there is no coming back from it!
Really Chilmark? Aren’t there better problems to attack like Island homelessness and affordable housing than a sport that is good for aerobic health. Get over yourself.
I occasionally play pickle and sometimes is difficult to arrange private games. While is Florida recently the Town there constructed 8 pickle courts in the park, and they were great. No scheduling needed for players, and they have 3 levels of play. When arriving you put your racket in a slot, and each court must evacuate after getting to 11 games. Your playing in minutes. All the noise is confined to a park area, no organization needed, you meet others easily, and no noise for neighbors. It was more fun than a private court.
A growing trend to address the noise issue is indoor pickleball facilities which can be used year-round despite what the weather is and keeps the noise contained indoors. These facilities already exist for Tennis / racquetball among other sports and could be a business for someone to look into.
Just a thought, but why to have the installation of a court allowed only with permission from abutters? I personally would have no issue with my neighbors playing pickle ball….
Isn’t it conceivable that the Town of Chilmark isn’t the ideal hamlet for this sport? Why can’t people work to establish a court near the YMCA, high school, or other area that doesn’t abut private property? I don’t get the ire suggesting Chilmark is sounding uptight or otherwise cramping people’s style. We have a problem in this country right now: a trend in entitlement to impose noise and aggressivity in general on other people. Adults debating this surely understand what “respect” is and can maybe help out our progressively uncivil culture backtrack a bit on the insistence that “We should be able to do what we want” without regard for the circumstances or context. I’m waiting for my “land of the free and home of the brave” to show it’s also a nation of grownups capable of decency and common courtesy — not to mention practical problem-solving.