Sunnyvale staff recommend dedicated pickleball, tennis and cricket facilities after community outreach

Sunnyvale staff and consultants presented findings from an outdoor sports assessment on Jan. 28, recommending a mix of dedicated courts and overlays for pickleball and tennis and improvements or new pitches for cricket at several city parks.

The study team said community outreach and a site inventory informed the recommendations. "The top 3 responses were pickleball, cricket, and tennis," Pat Healy of Verde Design told the City Council as he summarized survey and meeting results.

The recommendation list included dedicated pickleball courts at De Anza and Encinal parks; tennis courts at Las Palmas and Ponderosa parks; pickleball overlays on basketball courts at Ortega and Washington parks; a new cricket pitch at Las Palmas Park; and refurbishment of the existing cricket area at Ortega Park. Staff emphasized that all recommendations would require additional neighborhood outreach, design work and inclusion in the city's capital improvement program.

Why it matters: Council members flagged tradeoffs the study raised — noise from pickleball, spacing from adjacent residences, and cricket's large spatial footprint — and said they want clearer data on current usage before projects move into design or the CIP. Several council members and…