Wilton bond list adds four outdoor pickleball courts amid rising demand

Wilton has put four outdoor pickleball courts on its FY2027 bond list at a projected cost of $300,000, turning a familiar recreation complaint into a line item with real capital weight. The town’s first selectman’s office said residents have pressed for courts with loud and determined demand, and the Parks & Recreation Commission has made new outdoor pickleball space a priority.

The scale of that demand shows up in the town’s own presentation materials. Wilton says its Comstock pickleball court is in use five days a week, with play running in the mornings, afternoons and evenings. The same presentation calls pickleball the fastest-growing sport in the country, citing a 311% increase over the last three years. That kind of usage explains why the new courts are being treated as an expansion strategy, not just a nice add-on.

The bond-list placement is an important step, but not the last one. The project still has to move through the town’s capital and bonding approvals before construction can begin. If it stays on track, the four outdoor courts would add a meaningful layer of capacity in a town where the current setup has already been pushed hard.

That pressure has been building for years. Wilton’s first organized pickleball game at Comstock Community Center was reported in 2014, when resident Sylvia Brown played in the inaugural game organized by Parks & Recreation Commissioner Anne Richards. By 2023, the town’s existing pickleball footprint was already described as one indoor court at Comstock and four courts at the Middlebrook tennis courts, with demand outpacing availability. In June 2024, Wilton temporarily repurposed the upper parking lot at Middlebrook School for two dedicated pickleball courts, another sign that officials were using stopgap solutions while a longer-term plan took shape.

For players planning future day trips, four dedicated outdoor courts would not transform Fairfield County overnight, but they would matter. More courts in Wilton would ease pressure on the indoor Comstock court and create a steadier public-play option for a sport that is already working at or near capacity in town. It would also reinforce Wilton’s role as a destination where pickleball is moving from informal programming into the core of the recreation budget.

The expansion has also surfaced the familiar noise debate. In 2023, Lake Club neighbors objected to a plan for four pickleball courts, saying the sport was loud and intrusive. The Lake Club said an acoustical consultant found the sound levels would be similar to tennis as currently experienced. That tension now sits alongside the new bond request, which puts Wilton’s court shortage, and its appetite for growth, squarely on the public agenda.