This is a note from a neighbor in View Ridge about the proposed Pickleball courts at Magnuson Park –
The city continues to move ahead with a proposed lighted pickleball complex of 24 courts directly adjacent to the Magnuson Park wetlands. A growing number of citizens are urging Parks to relocate the courts away from wetlands. They state that intense noise and light from the complex would 1) interfere with bird and animal behavior and 2) degrade the quiet experience of connecting to the natural environment that the accessible wetland trails provide.
In the park’s own words, “the Magnuson wetlands are a beloved and serene feature of the park…. [They] offer habitats for a wide variety of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians…. a stroll down the wetlands walking paths might be joined by a chorus of bird calls or frog croaks.”
Find the Parks’ description of the proposed courts at https://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/projects/outdoor-pickleball-court-planning.
Impacts of the proposed location and a petition to reject the proposed site are summarized at websites of Birds Connect Seattle:
https://secure.birdsconnectsea.org/a/protect-birds-and-wetlands-magnuson-park
https://secure.birdsconnectsea.org/a/protect-the-restored-wetlands-at-magnuson-park
Additional Notes: The wetlands were created starting in 2007, at a taxpayer cost of $3 million—about $4.5 million in today’s dollars.
Parks decided on the Magnuson site in October 2023 with input from an advisory committee that included pickleball and tennis players and advocates, and it then developed conceptual designs. The public was not informed of the proposed courts until eleven months later, at a September 5, 2024 public meeting. The presentation and notes from this meeting do not appear on the Parks website, although a video of a second public meeting on October 21, 2024 states that environmental concerns were raised at the September meeting (and at the October meeting).
