Cecil Township approves indoor pickleball facility
The Cecil Township board of supervisors approved a conditional use application for a 48,000-square-foot pickleball and badminton event center in Lawrence.
The center, which will be located along Mayview Road, across from Hills-Hendersonville Elementary School, will offer year-round pickleball play on 16 indoor courts, five of which can be used for badminton.
The sports complex will also house a restaurant and locker rooms, eight ping pong tables for table tennis events, pool tables and dart boards, said Wayne Dollard, a national and U.S. Open mixed doubles pickleball champion who owns Level Up Pickelball, LLC, in Canonsburg, and who proposed the facility last year, after locals noted there’s nowhere to play pickleball during southwestern Pennsylvania’s cold and sometimes snowy winters.
“That sounds like it’s something that all of our community will want to participate in eventually,” board of supervisors Chairman Tom Casciola said during Monday’s monthly meeting.
The sports complex does not yet have an address, Dollard said. The facility will sit on three-and-a-half acres that were subdivided from Unique Gift Co & Firefly Lighted Canvas, which is 19 Mayview.
Cecil Township’s planning commission recommended approving the center at a December meeting.
A conditional use application hearing was held Monday prior to the supervisors’ regular monthly meeting. During Monday’s meeting, the supervisors unanimously approved plans for the pickleball and badminton center, on the condition that Dollard provide written confirmation of offsite parking availability.
Township manager Don Gennuso said parking should not be an issue, based on discussions during Monday night’s meeting.
“I think the board was excited, for lack of a better term. They, of course, are aware that pickleball is increasing in popularity. They feel that it’s a great asset to be here in Cecil Township,” Gennuso said.
Dollard said he aims to have the building completed and the facility open to the public in December.