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On Monday, March 17 fifteen WCPC members attended a preliminary injunction hearing at the Wakefield Taylor County Courthouse in Martinez. As you know, a small group of neighbors is suing the City of Walnut Creek, claiming harm and asking that the pickleball courts at Rudgear Park be immediately closed.

The city is challenging the lawsuit and as their first legal move is asking for the case to be dismissed on the grounds that local governments should be immune from liability when con- ducting their regular course of business (for example running their parks); and furthermore that the case be dismissed under the “separations of power doctrine” – i.e., city councils and courts are separate branches of government that have independent, separate powers and responsibilities.

The good news is that a couple of days prior to the court hearing on March 17, the judge ruled largely in the city’s favor! However, the neighbors’ attorney was given the opportunity to appeal this ruling in the hearing, which they did, arguing that excessive noise was harming the neighbors and the immunity argument should not apply if the city is breaking its own noise ordi- nance (which according to our sound measurements it is not.)

The city’s attorney responded that the neighbors’ argument was flawed since they were asking for the remedy of pickleball being removed entirely from the park, rather than asking for the noise level to be addressed. The neighbors’ attorney then requested they be allowed to amend their lawsuit.

At the time of this writing, it seems likely that instead of asking for a total shut- down of the pickleball courts, the neighbors amended lawsuit will be asking for some other form of re- lief, such as sound barriers or fur- ther reduced hours. That being said, the preliminary ruling by the judge at the time of this writing is that the case be dismissed. We hope that this holds! If it is not dismissed, then the lawsuit will move forward to a formal hearing or trial.