Did you know

Many families at Thunder Beach opposed an application for a Minister’s Zoning Order to create forty plus lots on the golf course lands at 360 West Shore Drive. The owner withdrew the application due to widespread community opposition. It is no coincidence then that the owner, without any notice or consultation, constructed pickleball courts behind the homes of families who had opposed the owners plans. If that was the intended effect, it has been successful.

Pickleball courts are notoriously noisy and should not be near residential areas. The noise from these courts is appalling and has ruined a peaceful part of the Thunder Beach community. The placement of the courts on West Shore Drive violates the most basic planning practices. Appeals to the owner’s family to restrict hours and to use sound control have been ignored.

Pickleball noise specifics

  • impulsive event structure;

  • short rise time and short duration;

  • high event count, 900 hits per hour per court;

  • random temporal distribution;

  • lack of rhythmic regularity;

  • spectral prominence in sensitive hearing bands, 1250 Hertz;

  • repeated salience that frustrates habituation;

  • audibility indoors and outdoors above a quiet residential ambient;

  • cumulative burden from multiple simultaneously active courts;

  • aggregate exposure daily, over weeks and years;

  • increase in burden as the number of courts and players increases.

What you can do

While we pursue our remedies to get this activity stopped, we are alerting you to what has happened and ask that you to make others aware of this situation and discourage the use of the courts. If you have used the courts or are being invited to use them, be aware you are unwittingly furthering conduct which is completely at odds with the way good neighbours behave at Thunder Beach.

You should also know that the Thunder Beach Association has already rightly rejected the location of courts at the Beach for the same noise issues.

If you’re thinking of coming to West Shore Drive to play pickleball ask yourself, is this really something you want to contribute to? How would you like this noise to be a constant nuisance in your life?

We are not alone:

CBC: Pickleballers are making too much racket and could face new rules, Toronto city council says

New York Times: Shattered Nerves, Sleepless Nights: Pickleball Noise Is Driving Everyone Nuts

Washington Post: We set out to find the real reason pickleball noise is so annoying

First Website Launched to Help Combat New Health Threat: Unwanted Pickleball Noise