Couple says pickleball noise keeping people from buying beach home
By David Bienick
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BOURNE, Massachusetts (WCVB) — A Sagamore Beach couple say they are struggling to sell their house because of noise from nearby pickleball courts.
Recently retired, Judy Comeau and her husband decided earlier this year to sell their home in Sagamore Beach, which is surrounded by gardens and has views of Cape Cod Bay.
The Comeaus put the house on the market in January and thought that it would sell immediately. But despite dozens of showings and repeated price drops, the house hasn’t sold. Judy Comeau says she knows why.
“And they just say, ‘Ah, we don’t think we can deal with that,'” Comeau said.
“That” is the sound of pickleball games from tennis courts located just over the fence from the Comeaus’s backyard, which were recently converted to pickleball courts. When it comes to the sound of a hard paddle hitting a hard ball, Comeau says pickleball is a whole new game.
“Seems to get stuck in your head,” Comeau said.
Comeau says she’s asked Sagamore Beach Colony Club, the private club that owns the court, to use softer paddles or put up sound walls, but she has received no response. So now she’s hired an attorney who recently forced another pickleball court to shut down because of neighbor complaints.
“There is no unreasonableness in making these complaints about pickle noise. I mean, it’s really demonstrated that the sound is very different from other sounds,” said Jonathan Polloni, Comeau’s attorney.
Comeau says she’s measured the pickleball decibels at levels comparable to a vacuum cleaner or garbage disposal.
“It went up to 78.2 (decibels),” Comeau said.
She says the only way to sell her home and escape the sound is to make the games stop.
“Whatever it does, I’ll take it off my equity and pay the lawyer. I can’t deal with it anymore,” Comeau said.
Signs to the entrance of the Sagamore Beach Colony Club say the court hours are limited, but Comeau says those rules are not respected.
WCVB did try to reach out to the club by phone and email on Wednesday, but did not hear back.
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