Tennis expansion worries residents
Tropic Hills neighbors expressed their concerns of possible new clay courts at McMullen Tennis Complex
By ALEXANDRA CALDWELL
| Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008 |
|
 |
CLEARWATER – Some Clearwater Tropic Hills residents are concerned about the potential expansion of the McMullen Tennis Complex.
Members of the Tropic Hills Homeowners Association discussed their concerns with a Clearwater parks and recreation representative at their association meeting Aug. 21.
Felicia Leonard, administrative support manager for the parks and recreation department, said the city has applied for a $200,000 grant from the state of Florida to build four additional clay tennis courts at the complex. The grant is for matching funds, and the city council has already agreed to pay the other half, she said.
“In 2002, we did our parks and recreation service system-wide master plan, and we had all sorts of community involvement,” Leonard said. “We looked at our level of service reports and the state and national models that show that we need more courts. We get a lot of use at these courts. Since Oct. 1 (2007,) we’ve had 8,600 drop-in admissions at the courts, and we’ve had over 2,000 tennis program participants.”
That doesn’t include play pass participants, she said.
Some residents, however, are unhappy about this potential expansion. The Tropic Hills neighbors who live closest to the complex worry that drainage will be a problem because an area of trees would be removed to make room for the clay courts. Resident Ricky Rios lives right behind the proposed expansion area and said he already has occasional drainage problems, so he worries that the new courts would compound this problem.
Leonard said the project is in its initial stages so it doesn’t have drainage plans drawn up yet, but city rules state that construction projects may not cause more runoff than already occurs naturally. Therefore, she said, the design would take drainage into account.
Rios had other concerns, too.
“I have concerns with security,” Rios said. “More tennis courts will bring about more people, so there will be a problem with parking and people walking through the back of everyone’s property.”
Rios also said more traffic in the area could cause problems with theft and noise. The neighbors already complain about the tennis noises that drift onto their property.
“I have an issue with noise,” Rio said. “They have that practice wall, and that’s a problem. It’s like living next to a train. You get that pong, pong, pong. It drives you nuts.”
Ron Wright, president of the Tropic Hills Homeowners Association said the noise also bothers him.
“I sat out at 4:30 this afternoon in my garage, and I heard that pong, pong, and some guy said ‘Aurgh’ real loud,” Wright said. “They get really excited and yell. When they have tournaments they have the PA, and I mean, it’s a free country and everything. There’s no reason why they can’t do this, but I wish they would have hedges or something along the back to try to muffle some of the noise.”
Leonard said a 160-foot buffer of trees would remain between the private property lines and the new courts but that she would suggest adding some trees in the landscaping process that would be an additional buffer. She also said that she checked and the complex does not break the city’s noise ordinance.
Mike Lockwood, Clearwater’s recreation superintendent, said that usage at the complex usually stops between 9 and 9:30 p.m., but the expansion could make it possible for more people to use the courts in a more condensed amount of time, so possibly the courts could close earlier. He also said he understands there have been complaints about the noise from the practice wall, but it might get less usage once a new program called Quickstart Tennis starts, which was created by the United States Tennis Association.
“It’s hard enough for an adult to hit, so the USTA has taken another approach that’s called Quickstart program, and it’s actually using a foam ball and a regular racquet, so we’ll be starting to use that more with our younger kids,” Lockwood said. “The hitting wall will not necessarily go away, but its usage will be less.”
That should help the noise problem, he said.
Gary Paulson, who has lived in the neighborhood since he was 4, totaling more than 44 years, said when the complex was first built there were drainage problems, and he’s also worried about the diminished wildlife in the area.
“There was one little area of wildlife left where you could see eagles and hawks, and the thing is, those courts aren’t used all that often,” Paulson said. “They don’t need more courts. They’re not full. There are empty courts there, and then they’re going to expand it.”
Other residents also were worried about the effect on wildlife. Some have seen eagles in the area, but Leonard said that she checked, and there are no eagle’s nests in that area.
Paulson said he’s worried because recreation centers are often threatened with closure, and he feels those help more people – especially more children – than the tennis complex. Others agreed.
Leonard said she couldn’t make any promises about the results but she would take the following ideas back with her: Worries about drainage issues; possible landscaping to add more trees; ask to take care of the exotic vines that are killing the existing trees; problems with the hitting wall and the PA system; possibly adding a play element to the expansion; and looking at possibly creating an indoor court treatment or sound barriers.
The city expects to hear whether or not its grant expansion was accepted sometime in July 2009.
|
Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008
Copyright © Tampa Bay Newspapers: All rights reserved. |
