The city of Solon has approved a Master Plan for renovating the city park. Many of the approved renovations are sensible and will provide much needed updates to the city park. However, one of the approved renovations is bad for Solon. In the Master Plan, that renovation is referred to as “Project 7.” The problem with Project 7 is that it involves destroying well over 60 matures trees in order to make room for pickleball courts. The damage to the city park will be irreparable.

The mature trees that are planned to be demolished are part of the original forest that was present on the grounds that became the city park several decades ago. This section of the city park is relatively small compared to the park as a whole (the city park spans approximately 80 acres), but it is one of them most pleasant parts of the city park. Further, this section represents nearly a third of the vegetation that is in raw state and hosts a number of small wildlife and birds.

As many other forests and matures trees, the mature trees that are planned to be demolished provide many benefits, including serenity and stress reduction, temperature control in sweltering summer days, extraordinary aesthetic value, and a respite from the sun to dogs and humans who walk or jog in the city park. The fact that such a precious space will be destructed in favor of pickleball courts is just heart breaking.

There are other spaces in the city park to build pickleball courts. For example, the following are some alternative sites for the pickleball courts:

1.       Build 12 pickleball courts South of the baseball/soccer field adjacent to the existing tennis courts.

2.       Build 12 pickleball courts South of Cisar field. This will require repurposing the existing baseball field for children 

3.       Build 12 pickleball courts adjacent to the parking lot between large baseball fields and Solon Middle School. This may require leasing that land until the school district releases the land (release will happen in about five years, which is a small time interval compared to expected life span of the small forest).

4.       Build 8 pickleball courts between the small forest and auxiliary parking lot, near the basketball court. This will require removing about five mature trees that are not part of the small forest. 

Let’s save the trees. Let’s ask the city of Solon to change Project 7 so we can keep our small forest and also build pickleball courts. Let’s ask the city of Solon to find an alternative approach to building the pickleball courts that does not rely on destroying precious natural assets that make this city great. The city can preserve the trees and build the desired pickleball courts.