Jamus Lim asks Parliament to open multi-storey car park floors for pickleball

Associate Professor Jamus Lim, Workers’ Party MP for Sengkang GRC, told Parliament on 5 March 2026 that Singapore’s burgeoning pickleball scene faces a chronic shortage of courts and mounting noise tensions, and urged authorities to consider converting underutilised upper floors of HDB multi-storey car parks into dedicated courts. Lim said the sport already counts “at least 5,000 ‘serious’” players, plus many casual participants, and that repurposing idle space could meet demand quickly.

In his remarks Lim invoked a 2021 parliamentary question response by then-Minister for National Development Desmond Lee to press the policy case: “In response to a PQ in 2021, then-MND Minister Desmond Lee stated that HDB is open to alternative uses of MSCP for social communal facilities. Hence, while not currently approved, there are good reasons why we can have pickleball courts in the MSCP. Let’s get this approved, for the sake of players and nonplayers.” He framed the proposal as pragmatic reuse rather than new construction.

Lim targeted the underused upper levels of multi-storey car parks, identifying the second-highest or second-to-top floors as candidates to avoid ground-level noise impact. He suggested enclosing those floors with ceilings to limit upward noise transmission and fitting retractable sound curtains along perimeters to contain lateral noise. Lim also acknowledged a common technical standard, saying many pick-up and competitive venues prefer a 5 metre minimum vertical clearance while adding that some MSCPs in Sengkang meet that threshold and casual players “may well be content with less.”

The proposal did not ignore safety and design limits. Ministry of National Development and HDB officials have previously cautioned that HDB MSCPs were designed and built primarily for parking and that safety could be compromised if facilities are used beyond their intended purpose. Lim pointed to precedents where MSCPs were repurposed for temporary HDB site offices as evidence that alternative uses can be feasible if properly assessed, but he did not name specific pilot sites in Parliament.

Public reaction was mixed on social media. Commenters on Facebook warned that “the sound will be magnified” and asked rhetorically, “At ground level, residents already can’t stand the noise, so now you’re suggesting to move it up to multi-story carpark roof or unutilised floor??” Other commenters praised the idea’s efficiency and connectivity, noting that “because of the 5 floors, only 3.5 floors are filled with cars” and that converting upper levels near MRTs would produce “considerable savings on having to construct the courts.”

Lim’s intervention moves the debate from community complaints and ad-hoc conversions to policy territory: if MND, HDB and town councils are to consider pilots, they will need structural assessments, acoustic studies and clear approval pathways to balance court demand, resident amenity and car-park safety. The ball is now with the relevant agencies to test whether the proposed conversions can pass engineering, noise and planning thresholds.