Smithfield pickleball courts face noise complaints, hours cut back
Willow Field players were told to stop by 5 p.m. weekdays and noon weekends after neighbor complaints turned pickleball noise into a zoning issue.
Smithfield’s new Willow Field pickleball courts ran into the problem many fast-growing pickleball sites eventually meet: the popping sound was loud enough to force a change in how the courts could be used. After neighbors complained about noise, players were told to pack up by 5 p.m. on weekdays and noon on weekends, a sharp cutoff that put neighborhood peace ahead of late-day court time.
The restriction came after a dispute that had already been building since the courts opened. Smithfield’s Parks Division said the town’s new pickleball courts were coming in summer 2025, and by the time play got underway, the sound of games at Willow Field had become a steady irritant for nearby residents. Earlier reports in October 2025 said the town was already weighing soundproofing to reduce the noise. Later discussions widened to include time-splitting, quieter balls, temporary restrictions and even possible relocation, showing how quickly a popular amenity can become a planning headache when it sits close to homes.
For Smithfield, the current hours looked like a compromise rather than a clean fix. Cutting play off at 5 p.m. on weekdays and noon on weekends preserved access to the courts while acknowledging that the existing setup had not won over the neighbors living with the repeated thwack of play. The harder truth for towns chasing pickleball traffic is that court construction is only the first step; once the games start, operating rules, hours and acoustics become part of the attraction, or the controversy.
The town has also made the public process easy to follow. Smithfield keeps meeting agendas and minutes online, with some records going back to 1956, and Town Council, Planning Board and Zoning Board meetings can be watched live through the town’s YouTube channel. That matters in a case like Willow Field, where the debate is not over whether pickleball belongs in Smithfield, but how much of it a neighborhood can absorb before the courts start changing the soundscape around them.
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