Update on adding more pickleball courts, proposed rule changes for all outdoor courts

Last year (March 2023) we announced an innovative way of adding more dedicated pickleball facilities quickly and cheaply by repurposing underutilized courts around the island. This bypassed the lengthy and costly process of building entirely new courts.

Prior to this effort, there were only 18 dedicated public pickleball courts in City parks around O‘ahu. A year into this effort we have already doubled that number to 36!

As part of that announcement, we identified 17 park locations where these court conversions would happen. So far, we have converted courts at three of these locations: Ke‘ehi Lagoon (12 courts), Kailua District Park (4), and Ka‘ala Neighborhood Park in Wahiawā (2).

However, we have made adjustments to this list based on community feedback. This kind of flexibility and park user input is exactly how we want this process to continue. We understand there is still a desire for more dedicated courts, however we must balance the needs of all park user groups and do not want to create an imbalance of facilities or conflict amongst the diverse population of park users. 

The court conversions are mixed in with our resurfacing efforts for other courts. We will begin incorporating the dividing fencing into the original court conversion effort moving forward.

In addition to making more dedicated, outdoor courts for pickleball players we have also been offering more indoor pickleball opportunities at our City park gymnasiums. This includes seasonal pickleball classes/leagues and making our gymnasiums open for regular free play.

Updates on the revised outdoor court rules are expected to be publicly announced by the end of Summer 2024, with lots of opportunity for public input from now until then. The proposed rules aim to balance casual recreation use of the courts with the addition of tennis and pickleball lessons and other permitted activities. The hope is to have consistent, fair regulations on agreeable terms for all court users to encourage compliance and reduce the need for enforcement. We want to keep our facilities as open to recreational use as possible, while also giving instructors the chance to provide higher quality lessons to our communities.

We appreciate the patience and understanding of the various park user groups while we work to make these rules and additional facility plans as beneficial to the community as possible.

Click here for the results of the second outdoor court survey

Click here for the results of the preliminary outdoor court survey

—PAU—

Existing Public Pickleball Courts (197 courts at 95 parks) 

Operated by the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation on the island of O‘ahu

PLEASE NOTE: Currently the majority of these courts do not have permanent pickleball nets, only the permanent court lines. Those with permanent nets are the "dedicated" courts, but there are more coming soon!