Pickleball USA did a sound analysis on Courts 7 & 8 and said there was no way to mitigate the noise for the residences above the court.
Los Angeles has budgeted $87 million for lawsuits and settlement for the fiscal year, which started in July. A month later, the City of Los Angeles agreed to pay $38.2 million to resolve allegations that it knowingly failed to meet federal accessibility requirements when it sought and used Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant funds for multifamily affordable housing.
Three months later the city has already paid out $97 million. Some went for claims against the police, but one person received $10.5 M when a fixture at the top of a streetlamp fell on a person’s head and another person received $7.5M when he/she lost arm after attack from an adopted animal shelter dog.
The money for payments comes out of the City’s General Fund: it does not come out of individual City Departments.
Perhaps residents may want to be aware of another possible lawsuit with the Palisades Recreation and Parks Center over a sound ordinance.
Pickleball players lobbied to play on the tennis courts in Pacific Palisades. They now are allowed to play, for free, on Tennis Court 7 on Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 to 8 p.m. Additionally, players can also sign up to play in the gym on Monday and Fridays, but they have to pay a fee to play there.
Unfortunately, Court 7 is next to two residences, and the noise from pickleball breaks the residential area LAMC noise restrictions PC415 and LAMC116.1.
When those same courts were first proposed for pickleball, services from a registered acoustical engineer recommended by Pickleball USA, were made available as a courtesy to Recreation and Parks.
Not only was the noise above the recommended level, but if one tried to put up a sound-absorbent wall, it would need to be at least 17 feet high, according to the engineer.
At the Park Advisory Board (PAB) Meeting October 16, Jasmine Dowlatshahi said that court was now available for pickleball, and that RAP was going to give $200,000 to put up a fence around the court.
CTN sent a query to RAP General Manager Jimmy Kim and other RAP officials on October 18, asking:
1) Since there’s no way noise standards at Court 7 can be met (even with a wall), is the City worried about legal action from the neighbors?
2) Where is the money coming from for the wall? The outdated lights at the tennis courts are not energy efficient and not focused on the courts (light pollution). PAB has asked if the lights could be replaced, but was told there was no money.
No one from the city has responded. After all, what’s one more lawsuit?
