Plan for Hugo Ray tennis bubble, pickleball courts deflated

A plan announced last year to build an inflated dome containing six tennis courts along with new covered pickleball courts in West Vancouver’s Hugo Ray Park has officially been deflated.

The district quietly let the air out of the plan this spring after escalating cost estimates combined with environmental and geotechnical studies of the site revealed the project would cost far more than budgeted.

In April 2023, Mayor Mark Sager announced that a memorandum of understanding had been reached between the municipality and Tennis BC that would see the sporting organization build and run a new tennis bubble along with covered pickleball courts in the park that would be open to the public 85 per cent of the time.

At the time, Sager described Hugo Ray as “a perfect location” and predicted the future tennis bubble and pickleball courts would be a great amenity. The North Shore Tennis Society also enthusiastically welcomed the news when it was first announced, describing it as “a great day for tennis in West Vancouver.”

But it turns out the park was not as ideal a location for the courts as first imagined.

Feasibility studies conducted through the fall of 2023 and winter of 2024 showed significant “silty sand, organic fill and wood mulch” on the site, consistent with its past use as dumping site for organic fill and wood waste, said Jill Lawlor, senior manager of parks for the municipality.

“It wasn’t a good site to build on without investment,” she said. “It was outside of our budget.”

Eventually, the scope of the combined facility and the cost of remediating the site to accommodate the tennis bubble and pickleball courts was beyond the amount of funding that both Tennis BC and the District could commit to, according to the district.

“You start with a shack and then you want a mansion,” she said. “At the end of the day it was going to be too much.”

About $350,000 – part of the $800,000 previously earmarked for the pickleball courts at Hugo Ray – has since been dedicated to construction of four new outdoor pickleball courts in Ambleside Park.

The four new pickleball courts are being built on Ambleside’s gravel “H field,” previously used as a parking lot south of the Spirit Trail near the par 3 golf course.

Construction has started, and the municipality is hoping to see the courts open in the fall, said Lawlor.

After that, the pickleball community will consider the best spot to invest the remainder of the money, she said.

Pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports in North America, particularly among seniors. There has been significant demand for court time in West Vancouver, where an older population tends to mirror the demographic of pickleball players.

But as in other communities where pickleball has taken off, the sport has not been without detractors and controversies.

Five years ago, in 2019, the first three outdoor pickleball courts opened in West Van at 29th Street and Marine Drive on a former tennis court – where they quickly filled up with enthusiastic players. Just as quickly, however, pickleballers drew noise complaints from neighbours.

That prompted the council of the day to reverse course and shut down those pickleball courts, converting them back to tennis courts in 2022.

In their place, the municipality set up four temporary pickleball courts on the northern sports court at Normanby Park. Those courts were made permanent by council July 8.

There are also four West Vancouver parks where tennis and pickleball players share courts: at Benbow, Chairlift, Cypress Park School and Whytecliff parks.