Rocklin plans 16-court pickleball complex at Sunset Whitney park

Rocklin is betting that 16 lighted pickleball courts can do more than fill a park corner. The city’s plan at Sunset Whitney Recreation Area puts the sport in the middle of a larger reset for the former golf course, with ADA-accessible pathways, gathering areas, fencing, landscaping, drainage work and space meant for spectators and tournament play.

The Rocklin City Council approved the plans and specifications on Oct. 28, 2025, moving the project into the bidding stage for the Sunset Whitney Recreation Area Pickleball Courts Project. A city bid notice put the estimated construction cost at $1.7 million and the total contract time at 50 working days, with a mandatory pre-bid walk-through set for Feb. 12 at 4201 Midas Avenue and bid opening scheduled for Feb. 26 at 1 p.m. The job is subject to California prevailing wage rules, another reminder that this is a public-works build, not a quick private-court add-on.

The pickleball complex sits in the park’s future “Hub,” a central area the city has been developing as part of the SWRA Master Plan adopted in 2023. Rocklin said the next phase follows years of phased upgrades after it acquired the 184-acre property in 2017, when Sunset Whitney was still the Rocklin Golf Club. Since then, the site has picked up tree removal, bridge rebuilding, irrigation work, pathways, lighting, informational kiosks and fencing. The West Trails opened in fall 2019, and the new court package is the latest piece of that transformation.

The numbers behind the plan suggest a court cluster aimed at more than casual drop-in games. Rocklin’s concept plan originally showed 13 standard courts and 2 championship courts with spectator seating and a kiosk, and the current 16-court layout pushes that vision closer to a full event venue. City officials have said the facility is being designed to accommodate league play and tournaments, which puts it in a different category from the neighborhood court builds that have been popping up across Northern California.

Funding also shows how the pickleball boom has become part of local tourism strategy. Rocklin said the broader project carries a $2.5 million price tag, backed by the city’s Capital Improvement Program and a $400,000 grant from Placer Valley Tourism, which appears in the city’s FY 2023-24 budget documents. That kind of outside tourism money is the clearest sign yet that Rocklin wants Sunset Whitney to pull visitors as well as residents, especially with the city describing itself as a destination tied to recreation and major travel corridors.

About 175 people turned out for a Sept. 12 public meeting on the SWRA master plan, where the city introduced The Hub concept. Park access is expected to remain open during construction, though temporary closures may be needed. If the schedule holds, construction should start in late April 2026, weather permitting, with a possible opening in late summer 2026. For Rocklin, the wager is simple: build enough court volume, event space and access infrastructure, and pickleball stops being an amenity and starts acting like a travel draw.