Chilliwack couple staging sit-in, hunger strike to protest pickleball court behind home

Couple goes on hunger strike over pickleball A Chilliwack couple is taking drastic measures to try to convince the city to shut down pickleball courts behind their home.

Rajnish and Harpreet Dhawan bought their Chilliwack home partly because it backed onto a lovely city park.

But in 2019, just steps from their property line, the municipality built three pickleball courts, and players use them at all hours of the day.

That means the couple is constantly subjected to the smack of pickleball hitting fibreglass paddles from sun up to sun down, seven days a week.

“Have you heard about a torture technique when a drop of water is put on your forehead once, twice, every day, consistently? It’s like that,” said Rajnish. “You are being subjected to this high decibel sound — we have a recording, it was 85 decibels — consistently for hours together, from the time we wake up, to the time we go to bed.”

They tried to endure the noise early in the pandemic, but say it was made worse when the courts were resurfaced in 2021.

“I love noises, I love people, I love children playing. But I never signed up for this kind of nuisance, this kind of noise,” said Harpreet. And they say a black tarp-like noise barrier that the city recently installed has made no difference.

“All the studies show that no sound mitigation efforts work if the pickleball courts are less than 65 meters. So this is just five meters,” said Rajnish, who filed his first noise complaint last summer.

“I got a phone call from a city official saying they understand what we are saying and they are sympathetic and they will do something about it. But nothing was done,” he said, adding the constant noise is impacting his physical and mental health. “I was having arrhythmia, I was having auditory hallucinations. I’m 52, I have never had to consult a mental health professional in my life before this.”

President of the Chilliwack Pickleball Club Lyle Simpson says he understands both sides of the debate.

“The city was trying to do something to accommodate all of the hundreds of pickleball players in Chilliwack and on a tight budget. They tried to come up with some courts that would solve the problem of nowhere to play outdoors. And I also can feel for those people because it would be annoying to have that noise all day long, all day outside your house,” said Simpson.

The mayor refused an interview request from CTV News. In an email, his staff said when a new indoor pickleball facility is completed in 2024, the courts behind the Dhawan’s home will be closed.

But the university professor and dental hygienist say they can’t wait that long. So on Sunday, the couple is staging a sit-in and hunger strike on the middle of the courts. They hope it convinces the mayor to act sooner.

“I just need this pickleball court to be closed,” said Harpreet. “I don’t know if they want to make something like badminton for the kids, or a dog park. But no pickleball, please.”