Pickleball has taken the sporting community by storm and cities across the Bay Area are busy converting tennis courts into pickleball facilities.  

But it comes with one major drawback: the sounds of the game can be maddening for people living nearby and Martinez is scrambling to address the complaints of angry neighbors.

On a hot Saturday afternoon, the passion for pickleball had cooled off a bit, with only two courts being used. But there are days when the new courts at Hidden Valley Park are crazy busy.  

From his backyard, it's not something that neighbor Jason Garry can ignore.

"Pickleball has a really distinct popping sound. A sharp popping sound and it makes people nearby miserable," Garry said. "It's been really hard. We hear it in the morning and then we hear it when we go to bed.  And that, that's very horrible."

Garry's home is about 30 feet from the Hidden Valley Sport Courts, and so are a number of other houses. It used to be just two tennis courts, but in February, the city split one of them into eight pickleball courts and nothing has been the same for those who live right next to them.

"It would actually be more miserable than the noise level that I hear, is right here," said Garry, pointing to a two-story home directly overlooking the courts. "So, I do feel for these people."

The city installed sound blankets, but only on one side, and Garry said it almost seems to amplify the noise directed at his home. He's placed a fountain in his backyard just to try to mask the sound, but he said the city clearly knew it was going to be a problem for the homeowners on the non-blanketed side.

"The city has their reasoning for why we didn't get them," he said.  "I think it was a little negligent that we didn't get them, because it would have provided relief for the residents."

Martinez's public information officer, Eve Kearney, was at the site on Saturday, installing signs listing the new time restraints, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and asking for "respect" for the neighbors.  She acknowledged that they knew there would be sound issues, and that there had been no noise complaints when it was primarily used for tennis.  A city staff report estimates that it could cost more than $100,000 to put sound blankets on both sides of the facility.

"Engineering has looked at a couple of different options," Kearney said. "Right now, the sound blankets put on this side...that may be an option later down the road, but we're trying all these different things before we go down that route, because that is a bigger cost.  And we would have to reconstruct, I believe, certain parts of the fence just to be able to hold that type of weight."

The city began a 90-day pilot program at the beginning of June to see how well the new rules and signs do in addressing the homeowners' concerns.  And Manny Myerson, who lives about 100 feet from the courts, said there have been improvements.

"There was some concerns, maybe parking and noise. I think I'm far enough away to where the sound doesn't even bother me," he said. "Mostly, parking on the street, I didn't know how busy it was going to be. When it first opened up, there was more crowds.  But I think they put signage there and it seems to be better."

But for those who live right next to the courts, there is simply no avoiding the din of the pickleball craze. Garry said he doesn't have a lot of hope that anyone is going to care very much about it.

"There's no faith. There is no faith in that. I think human nature is to go against recommendations. And they're pretty set in their ways," he said. "It's a lot of people who come, they drive 20 minutes. They park and they go play. And they love it and I understand why. They don't have to listen to the noise for 12 hours. And that is really impacting the residents."

New rules have been posted involving hours of play, a no-parking request in the neighborhood, and the encouragement of using new, quieter equipment.  But so far, most of the rules are merely suggestions with little hope of enforcement.  

Garry said he wants to pursue a lawsuit against Martinez for creating the nuisance in the first place.

 It was the city's decision to open the courts and the players aren't really doing anything wrong by playing there.