Morristown pickleball courts move into capital budget, site search continues

Morristown’s pickleball debate has moved past the question of whether people want to play. At the April 15 Town Council meeting, residents pressed officials for an update on courts and said the current limited schedule was not enough, pushing for a permanent answer instead of another short-term patch.

Town officials said they were looking at a site near Bishop Nazery Way and that the project had been included in the capital budget. That matters because it puts pickleball into formal municipal planning, with future spending and site selection now part of the discussion rather than a side note in parks operations.

The access pressure is already visible at Lidgerwood Park. The town lists three pickleball courts there, with badge required for use, and its 2026 badge registration opened on March 30 with a limited number of badges available on a first-come, first-served basis. Under town rules, annual badges must be worn visibly and cannot be transferred, and private leagues, tournaments and lessons require permits from the Recreation Department.

That setup helps explain why some players and residents are treating the court question as an access issue, not just a recreation upgrade. When demand keeps running into a capped schedule and a badge system, every available court becomes part of a larger debate over who gets to play and when.

Morristown has been here before. A town bid document dated October 3, 2023 called for three pickleball courts at Lidgerwood Park, converted from an existing tennis court with new fencing, gates, crack repairs, court coating, striping and noise-reducing fence covering. By March 11, 2025, the town was planning to scrap the Lidgerwood courts, which cost more than $132,000 to build, and start over at an undisclosed location after neighbors complained about noise, privacy and safety.

Those complaints went beyond play itself. Residents said the area had become a nuisance even after sound-dampening screens were added, with reports of people sleeping and urinating behind the courts. In Morristown, pickleball has already shown how quickly a popular sport can spill into quality-of-life concerns for nearby streets and homes.

The Bishop Nazery Way search points to a different kind of challenge. Morristown Partnership describes the Center/Coal Redevelopment Area there as a site with an undetermined timeline, a 2006 redevelopment plan for 150 to 200 residential units, and flooding and contamination constraints tied to the Whippany River corridor. That means any permanent pickleball solution would land in a complicated redevelopment zone, where access, drainage and land use all matter.

For Morristown, the issue is no longer whether pickleball is popular. It is whether the town can find a durable place for it without repeating the same neighborhood conflicts.