Local residents play volleyball at the proposed court’s site. Photo by Lauren Turner.
Neighbors gathered Tuesday to discuss the proposed sand volleyball court at Tietze Park.
The community input meeting was intended to aid the park department in making a decision on whether a court should be installed.
District 14 Park and Recreation Board member Rudy Karimi had to postpone the meeting because of the weather, but he and Friends of Tietze Park, along with neighborhood stakeholders, showed up at the original meeting time anyway to discuss the court.
Another community meeting, which has not yet been scheduled, will be held, and Dallas Park and Recreation staff will be present. If community support for the court remains, the park department will give final approval for the project, Karimi said. Then money can exchange hands, and a groundbreaking will be held.
The park department has already approved the design for the court, and Friends of Tietze Park, which began discussing adding a court in 2020, has already identified funding.
Private donations will account for 50% of the funding, and the other 50% will come from the park department, through the 2017 bond. Money set aside for the sand volleyball court is not taking away money from other projects, Karimi said.
Earlier this year, the city released a survey about the proposed court and received 325 responses, a number that Karimi said he was not expecting.
“We typically get 70 to 80 respondents for proposals … with a larger blast radius than this,” he said.
Of the responses, 62% of people said they were in favor of the court’s installation, and 38% were opposed. Concerns shared at the June 6 meeting echoed those of survey respondents and attendees of the March 9 meeting.
The most vocalized issue at the meeting is the noise that the court will bring to the neighborhood. Although the court is 45 feet from the nearest street, neighbors near the park are worried late night games will disturb them.
“Our parks are open [until] 11 p.m. Technically, anyone can be out here till 11 p.m. before … DPD can tell you to leave,” Karimi explained.
Karimi also said that the court’s installation plan does not include adding new lighting to the park.
“This will be dark, like the rest of the park. You’ll just have the soft perimeter lights,” he said.
Another concern is that feral cats will use the court as a litter box. But Karimi said superintendents of other sand volleyball courts in the area have not had to deal with this issue.
“The maintenance department will treat the sand with a combination of vinegar and water — [it’s] non-toxic. They do that to prevent grass and weeds. The cats hate vinegar,” Karimi said.
Maintenance of the court was another concern brought up by residents. Karimi ensured attendees that city maintenance teams will rake the sand, inspect equipment and spray the vinegar-water solution when they visit.
“The maintenance department will do a very thorough maintenance detail job … twice a month,” Karimi explained.
Sam Gillespie, a Friends of Tietze Park board member (and Advocate writer) said that the court’s construction will add drainage to the park. The concrete perimeter of the court will be “12 inches wide, 18 inches deep” and ensure that the sand stays where it should.
With the pool nearby, some residents are worried that players will use swimming as a way to rinse off. Karimi assured them that the staff at the aquatic center will be trained to ask players to shower off before jumping in.
Many residents in attendance were upset that communication regarding the project had not been more thorough. Karimi and FOTP agreed to expand their door-hanger route to a two block radius and to put signage up around the park.
There will be no formal vote on whether this project is put into action. When the official city meeting is rescheduled, representatives will need to see how the community feels about the proposed court. Although residents can no longer fill out the city survey, Karimi encouraged community members to send him feedback via email (rudy.karimi@dallas.gov).
With all the proposed issues, Karimi is still confident that this project will be beneficial for Tietze Park and the surrounding area. Dallas Park and Recreation only has a a few sand volleyball courts open across the city, and the demand for them is growing. The park does not have room for another tennis court, and pickleball gets too many noise complaints, meaning these proposals are not viable for Tietze Park.
“It falls 100% in line with our mission and vision statement of our parks department, which is this: Champion lifelong recreation, and be good stewards of our public land,” Karimi said. “Not all of our proposals check those two boxes, but the ones that do, I give a lot of respect to.”
