Pickleball wars in Fort Lauderdale: A complex situation
Controversial pickleball courts could be built on site of composting mound
FORT LAUDERDALE — Let’s talk pickleball, that wildly popular game that’s seen explosive growth in the past few years.
Fans of the fast-growing sport say South Florida is in desperate need of more places to play.
Two guys from Fort Lauderdale, retired entrepreneurs who share players’ frustration in waiting for a court, are on a mission to build what they call a world-class pickleball complex in Snyder Park that could draw anywhere from 200 to 500 people a day.
My Park Initiative’s Brad Tuckman, 49, and Richard Campillo, 60, say they came up with their grand plan while brainstorming at a local coffee house. They turned to Ellyn Bogdanoff, an attorney and former state senator, for help in finding the best spot for an 8-acre pickleball complex with 42 courts, a restaurant and other amenities.
Lockhart Park was out because the city had other plans, Bogdanoff said. Holiday Park, with six busy pickleball courts, didn’t have room for 42 more. So they looked to Snyder Park, 91 acres of green paradise with nature trails, a dog park, two lakes, a disc golf course and multipurpose field.
Tuckman and Campillo sent an unsolicited proposal to City Hall in August 2021 to build their new pickleball complex in the park, located at 3299 SW Fourth Ave., east of Interstate 95 and less than a mile from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Battle over green space
The deal won commission approval on Nov. 1 despite an outcry from nearby residents worried about noise and traffic and community activists complaining about another land giveaway.
Bogdanoff says she warned her clients early on they might face opposition.
And boy have they. Community activists and volunteers are gathering petition signatures to try to block the project. Battles play out almost daily on social media, with both fans and foes of the project arguing the pros and cons and accusing one another of spreading misleading information.
“The other side has given people the impression we are paving over 90 acres,” Bogdanoff said. “They are telling people, ‘We are losing Snyder Park.’ No one [on our side] is trying to mislead anyone. But people have to engage and find out the facts.”
To clear up one point of contention: Some folks think the massive pickleball complex will somehow fit on a half-acre of land that’s now home to a seaweed composting mound at the southwestern end of Snyder Park.
Others seem to believe the entire park will be paved over to make way for pickleball, according to Bogdanoff.
Both groups would be wrong.
A search for truth
The pickleball complex needs 8 acres — 16 times more land than the half-acre taken up by a 20-foothigh seaweed composting mound. The seaweed, trucked in daily from the beach, eventually turns to dirt used in landscaping throughout the city.
A map put out by the My Park Initiative team on its website claims the seaweed mound is 2 acres, only leading to the confusion, critics say.
“People have been led to believe that this entire project is going to be built on a trash heap,” said Patricia Rathburn, president of the Croissant Park Civic Association. “There’s been a lot going on behind the scenes and I’m not sure anyone knows all of the facts.”
In a statement on its website, MPI says the pickleball facility
will be built on land currently being used for a garbage transfer station, seaweed composting storage mound, city truck storage and employee parking.
No mention is made of the large open field where the courts will go.
“They keep saying they’re only converting the seaweed mound, but that’s not true. They’re also building on the big open field,” said community activist Kevin Cochrane, who is leading the petition drive to stop the project.
On Friday, Bogdanoff told the South Florida Sun Sentinel she will make sure the information on the website gets updated and corrected.
The same map put out by MPI shows the park acreage that would be dedicated to pickleball: 3 acres that are now an open field with grass and trees; 1.25 acres of a now-closed lakefront beach that will be restored and open to the public; a quarter-acre where now-condemned restrooms sit; another quarter-acre that’s being used for a garbage transfer station; and 2.5 acres being used for equipment, truck parking and staff offices.
‘Their idea is genius’
But some say it doesn’t matter to them if all of that goes away to make way for pickleball.
Count Kevin Berman them.
Berman, a real estate broker from Fort Lauderdale, says he started playing pickleball two years ago and loves it.
“I can’t run around and play tennis anymore,” he said with a laugh. “I’m 52 now. My wife and I like to try new things. I think their idea is genius. This is the most underutilized area in the park. Now people might start going.”
At least 35 emails have come in to City Hall in the past week encouraging the city to move forward with the plan. The messages arrived after a mass email went out from “Brad and Rich” urging pickleball fans to speak up before an upcoming commission meeting on Tuesday.
“We definitely need more pickleball courts as the current ones throughout the city have waits up to 30 minutes to play,” Arkadiusz Mlodzinski wrote in one email sent Wednesday. “It’s a great sport and we have made many new friends playing and look forward to meeting among
more new friends on the new pickleball courts!”
The commission has also received plenty of emails from critics.
“These deals are not ‘free’ to the taxpayer, they are depriving the taxpayer of the future collective use of the land forever,” community activist Leann Barber wrote in an email sent on New Year’s Eve. “We are out of land in the city, and freely giving away public land and public assets is not in the public interest. If you believe the residents would benefit from pickleball courts, then build them at taxpayer’s expense.”
The commission already has approved a plan for MPI to design, build and operate the pickleball complex in the park. The company will operate the courts for 50 years with an option for two five-year extensions. Under the deal, which critics are calling another land giveaway, Fort Lauderdale will collect $100,000 annually or 1% of the gross revenue collected the previous year, whichever is greater.
As part of the agreement, Fort Lauderdale will reimburse the developer up to $1 million to renovate two city-owned buildings near the park.
MPI plans to present an updated design to the commission on Tuesday
during a 1:30 p.m. conference meeting at City Hall. The commission will be asked for feedback before the design moves on to the city’s Development Review Committee, Bogdanoff said.
Here’s what’s coming, based on the preliminary site plan: 42 pickleball courts, a restaurant by the lake, a floating dock with kayak and paddleboard rentals; a lakefront beach area; pro shop and locker rooms; fitness center; bocce courts; shuffleboard courts; and beach volleyball.
The complex should be fully operational by 2024.
The facility plans to host four to six tournaments per year, drawing up to 1,000 pickleball players for each event.
Open till midnight
Based on current plans, the facility will open at 6 a.m. and close by midnight.
That has foes of the plan worried about lights and noise.
“The courts are going to be open till midnight, and that’s going to dramatically affect wildlife throughout the park,” Cochrane said.
In a statement on its website, MPI says wildlife within the park
will not be affected by the project “as the land is currently used for compost, truck storage, parking [and] a garbage transfer station.”
MPI plans to build a noise berm on the east side of the facility to help protect the park from noise coming from the courts. As for nearby homes, the park’s trees should protect them from any noise, Bogdanoff said.
“We have a tremendous amount of support,” she told the Sun Sentinel. “People who are excited about something don’t always speak up. People who are angry do. I feel it is grossly unfair for them to give people the impression that they will lose Snyder Park.”
Bogdanoff says she considers Snyder Park one of the best-kept secrets in Fort Lauderdale.
“A lot of people in this town don’t even know Snyder Park exists,” she said. “People don’t even know it’s there.”
That will all change if a worldclass pickleball complex comes to town, Bogdanoff said.
“I think that’s a good thing,” she added. “People will come. That’s what parks are for.”