Get ready to ask for more pickleball facilities
The city of Bellevue is starting to update its Parks and Open Space System Plan (POSSP). This is a 20-year plan that gets updated every six years.
Over the next couple of months the Bellevue Parks Department will be asking for you to submit feedback about what you would like to see in the new plan. There will be a web survey. A public hearing will also occur, most likely in September.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the new plan included developing more indoor and outdoor pickleball facilities in Bellevue? For this to happen, we will have to ask for it, loudly and often.
What will you ask for?
Start thinking about what you would like to ask the Bellevue Parks Department to do for pickleball in the short (2 years), medium (5 years) and long (10 years) term. Discuss it with other players.
Here are some things to think about to get you started:
- Would you like outdoor courts that are lighted, so you can play in the evening in the fall, winter and spring?
- Would you prefer a central pickleball facility with a large number of courts, or would you rather see the same number of courts spread out in different locations throughout the city?
- Would you like to see public outdoor tennis courts to be lined for pickleball, as a first cheap step to accommodate the growing number of pickleball players.
- If current trends persist, the number of pickleball players is expected to double every 5 years for a while. What should the Bellevue Parks department do to be prepared for this growth?
- Would you like to have access to more indoor pickleball time, or are you happy with the current or pre-pandemic offerings at the South Bellevue, North Bellevue and Crossroads Community Center?
For those who want to know everything
If you want to learn more about the POSSP update process, here are some slides shared by the Parks Department.