Los Gatos plans $90K renovation to quiet noise and ease tensions in pickleball feud

DOZENS OF LOS GATOS residents and pickleball players spoke over each other, cussed under their breath and rolled their eyes at a community meeting last week — all over a yearslong noise dispute that’s led to vandalism and verbal threats.

Town officials at the meeting, hosted on Los Gatos’ outdoor pickleball courts at La Rinconada Park, laid out their $90,000 solution to the ongoing friction. It includes resurfacing the courts, installing sound barriers, monitoring security cameras and installing a time-sensitive locking gate. The efforts are an attempt to ease the animosity brewing between neighborhood residents and pickleball players over the sport’s noise, after the situation reached a boiling point when someone vandalized two of the four pickleball courts with oil. The two courts are now unusable.