Henrico County weighs restrictions at troubled Pouncey Tract pickleball courts

Henrico County was weighing how to keep Pouncey Tract Park open without letting it slide into a nighttime problem spot after reports of fights, beer cans, trash, drug paraphernalia, broken fence latches and vandalism around the courts. The choices on the table were blunt: shut the park down, turn off the lights earlier, or impose age restrictions.

Each option would hit normal court use in a different way. A full shutdown would wipe out access to one of the region’s busiest public pickleball sites. Turning the lights off earlier would cut into the evening window that has become essential at a complex where players have long relied on after-work and night play. Age restrictions would target the large groups of teens that have been tied to the most troubling incidents, but they would also block younger legitimate users and families who use the park the right way.

The pressure on the county makes more sense when you look at what Pouncey Tract has become. The site at 4747 Pouncey Tract Road in Glen Allen now has 24 lighted pickleball courts and is open daily from dawn to dusk. It also includes picnic facilities, walking trails, restrooms, an accessible and inclusive playground and the relocated Springfield Schoolhouse, a building originally built around 1920 to serve African American students in the Short Pump community.

That scale did not happen overnight. County officials unveiled 12 new courts on Nov. 2, 2024, after the Board of Supervisors approved the project in August 2023. The $4.4 million expansion doubled the court count to 24 and added 10 standard courts and two championship courts, plus an 86-space illuminated parking lot, improved access roads and ADA-compliant walking paths. The newer courts were built on the park’s old softball field area and use LED sports lighting, which helped make the site a magnet for evening play.

That popularity is now part of the problem. Officials said the lights have stayed on until around midnight even though the park itself is officially open only from dawn to dusk, and much of the reported trouble has come from large groups of teens gathering at night. Supervisor Misty Roundtree said police were reviewing camera footage and could file charges if the videos show crimes. She also said most of the drug paraphernalia seen so far has been related to marijuana, not syringes or harder drugs.

Henrico Police were expected to increase patrols, especially on weekends, as county leaders tried to separate ordinary players from the people damaging the site. Pouncey Tract is still a valuable public amenity, but the county’s next move will decide whether it stays a welcoming pickleball hub or becomes another case of demand outrunning the rules meant to hold it together.