Planning board backs sending pickleball zoning article to town meeting

The Nantucket County Planning Board voted to give a positive recommendation to send a warrant article about pickleball courts to town meeting, after a lengthy discussion focused on noise, setbacks and whether the use should be handled by special permit or broader zoning limits.

The draft article on the warrant would add the term “pickleball” to the zoning use chart with a prohibition in all districts as drafted; board members were told that the wording could be amended during the public hearing process or at town meeting to allow the use in certain districts or by special permit. "The intent of being so prohibitive is because that allows, through the public hearing process and town meeting, to put other guardrails in place," said Megan (town staff), who briefed the board on the article's scope.

Board members framed the issue as primarily a noise and neighborhood-compatibility problem rather than a…