By Sam Richards

Staff writer

Thursday, August 21 (9:00 a.m.): Saying that the project is necessary for marketing Rossmoor as a vital, up-to-date community with the best amenities, the RWC Planning Committee on Aug. 12 voted to recommend the full RWC Board approve spending almost $4.5 million to build a new pickleball building near the Event Center.

“It’s an amenity that’s required for us to be competitive,” said committee member Dwight Walker, referring to Rossmoor attracting new residents in the coming years. Most similar active-adult communities feature pickleball courts.

“(Home) buyers are looking for things like pickleball,” Walker added. “We’re a little late, quite honestly.”

The bid recommended last week by the Planning Committee was submitted by Huff Construction, one of three bids received. The base construction cost bid is for $3,768,651; factoring in a 10% contingency and various “soft costs” including permits and a bond to safeguard the money spent, the total estimated cost would go up to $4,487,449. The cost would be paid from the capital budget, funded by the $13,500 Membership Transfer Fee (MTF) paid by new residents buying into Rossmoor.

Rossmoor officials have been exploring options for a long-term home for outdoor pickleball courts since 2021. Initial plans to expand the current pickleball “facility” ‒ the former tennis courts near Creekside ‒ were dropped because erosion into Tice Creek will likely make the courts unusable within a few years. Alternative locations, including the Buckeye Tennis Courts, the Dollar House picnic grounds, a joint project with the City of Walnut Creek at Tice Valley Park just outside Rossmoor’s gates, and the lawn bowling greens at Hillside, were all studied before the current location behind the Event Center and alongside the golf course was approved in July 2023. Sound studies to mitigate noise for nearby homes prompted the city of Walnut Creek to require redesigns for the facility, leading the project’s cost to rise.

By July 2023, the estimated construction price had risen to $2.8 million. And the higher that number subsequently went, the more opposition surfaced from residents contending that the cost, to benefit a relatively small number of people (the Rossmoor Pickleball Club has between 600 and 700 members), was prohibitive.

Even early in this Aug. 12 meeting, committee member Janet Seldon questioned whether a pickleball building was the best use of that capital fund cash. She suggested long-discussed improvements at Dollar House are at least as important as a new pickleball building, and likened pickleball to a “trend.”

“That $5 million could go a long way toward (Dollar improvements),” Seldon said early in the meeting. “I just feel there may be other priorities.”

Committee member Adrian Byram said he viewed the project cost by considering how the current pickleball players contributed an average of $10,000 for the MTF, which at $6 million, “they sort of paid for it themselves in advance, although I know it’s not quite that,” he said. “For me, it shows the demand sort of matches the price that we’re going to pay.”

Committee member Ted Bentley, as well as Rossmoor General Manager Jeff Matheson, said the importance of the pickleball structure is also bigger than satisfying current Rossmoor pickleball players. Bentley said, “Pickleball attracts people.” And with pickleball the fastest-growing sport in the United States, Matheson said a new pickleball facility would be linked with Rossmoor’s marketing mission, as laid out earlier this year by the Marketing Task Force.

“It is vital that we continue to make these improvements,” said Matheson, also asserting that even non-players evaluating potential new places to live would probably be impressed by Rossmoor’s efforts to stay abreast of modern demands.

“New residents coming in will see that this is a vibrant community,” he said.

Although there is no way to fully measure how important pickleball is to potential homebuyers, Rossmoor Communications Director Ann Peterson noted that participation in the sport in the United States grew 35% in 2024 over 2023 and 52% of that increase were seniors.

RWC Board member Susan Hildreth, who isn’t a Planning Committee member, said she recognizes the importance of pickleball as a Rossmoor amenity but questioned whether the planned structure near the Event Center would have enough courts. She asked whether the current RWC Property Management (formerly MOD) offices could be converted to pickleball courts if a new RPM home is found. Matheson said the east end of Rockview Drive would remain the site of RWC’s corporation yard and vehicle shop, and that those facilities would be an unworkable mix with pickleball.

By the time the Planning Committee voted on recommending the Pickleball facility’s construction phase, Seldon had changed her mind about the project’s value. “You’ve convinced me,” she told Walker and others at the meeting. The vote was 4-0 for recommending moving ahead with the project.

Matheson and others stressed that the construction costs will all be paid from the RWC capital budget and will have minimal impact on the RWC residential coupon. Ongoing maintenance and custodial costs, as well as property taxes, are estimated to add no more than 75 cents to the RWC portion of the coupon, Matheson said. Byram pointed out that ending the existing maintenance at the Creekside pickleball courts would cancel out at least part of that increase.

Carol Ceroni and Frank Reynolds, the current president and past president of the Pickleball Club respectively, were present for the Planning Committee’s vote, and were pleased. “Pickleball is definitely not just a trend,” Ceroni said.

The RWC Finance Committee is expected to weigh in on the cost of the pickleball construction bid at its Tuesday, Aug. 26 meeting, with the full RWC Board expected to vote on the bid two days later.

Ceroni and Reynolds said they’re optimistic about the project’s future.

“I’m going to stay positive; my cup is half full at this point,” Reynolds said. “Everything seems to be moving in the right direction.”