Anacortes weighs cutting hours at its only public pickleball courts

Anacortes is weighing a cut to the hours or days of play at Clearidge Park, a move that would hit the city’s most visible pickleball players where it hurts most: access. When the City Council discussed the recommendation Tuesday night, picklers showed up in numbers, a sign that the issue is no longer about a side court tucked into a park. It is about scarce public court time in a sport that runs on repetition, rotation and prime evening windows.

Clearidge Park sits near the Anacortes Airport on a .8-acre parcel described in the city’s parks plan as partially developed, with one tennis court, two pickleball courts and a basketball court. That small footprint is the problem and the point. When demand rises, a pair of pickleball courts can fill fast, and when the city starts trimming hours, the players who lose first are the ones counting on after-work open play, small league runs and casual games that do not fit neatly into a full club schedule.

The pressure has been building for months. A Parks and Recreation Commission summary recorded Delores, a neighboring resident, saying the city had not done enough to address noise at the Clearidge courts and that she wanted the courts and park closed and removed. In that same summary, her research said pickleball courts should be 150 to 650 feet from residences. The city’s Parks Commission later recommended staff reduce pickleball hours at Clearidge, showing the debate had already moved from complaint to policy.

Anacortes Parks & Recreation says its mission is to preserve and enhance quality of life by providing recreational facilities and opportunities for residents of all ages and backgrounds. That mission is exactly what makes this fight tricky. Fewer hours would calm one set of complaints, but they would also ration a public amenity that has clearly built a local following. For regular players, the losers are obvious: fewer open-play blocks, tighter league calendars and longer waits for a turn on court.

The city has also looked beyond Clearidge. A 2025 council item involved an interlocal agreement with Anacortes School District No. 103 for tennis court upgrades and pickleball conversion at 22nd St. and K Ave., a sign that officials know one site may not be enough if the sport keeps growing. Some third-party court directories list additional free public venues and more courts across Anacortes, but Clearidge is still the court complex at the center of the argument, and the local pickleball scene is organized enough to support courts, clubs, coaches, open play and tournaments.

That is the larger lesson here: building courts is only half the job. Once a town’s public courts start filling every usable hour, the fight shifts from expansion to rationing. In Anacortes, the question is no longer whether pickleball has arrived. It is who gets to play when the city decides there is not enough court time to go around.