Sterling Heights moves ahead with $10M indoor pickleball complex

The Metro Detroit community of Sterling Heights is well on its way to spending $10 million on an indoor pickleball facility, thanks to a recent city council vote involving agreements to purchase and renovate a building.

In the November 2024 election, 30,389 residents in the city of approximately 132,000 people approved a property tax increase of 0.95 mills, while 29,679 voted no. The successful tax-increase campaign, which city officials dubbed Pathways to Parks and Preservation, gave the city permission to borrow $40 million to pay for various projects, including improvements to a park and roughly $10 million for an indoor pickleball facility.

Hundreds if not thousands of people will use the facility, Mark Vanderpool, city manager, told members of the council at a Sept. 2 meeting.

Pickleball is increasingly popular, said Kyle Langlois, director of the city’s parks and recreations department, with participation up 200% to 300% recent years. Residents have been asking the city to build more courts for 10 years, Mayor Pro-Tem Liz Sierawski said at the meeting.

The spending package for the pickleball facility includes $2.5 million to purchase the building and land at 35630 Van Dyke Avenue, with the rest going for renovations.

Officials expect that the facility will be open to residents in July 2026. Its nine courts will supplement 10 outdoor courts in the city. The building will have space for six table tennis courts, meeting rooms, a meditation room and a space for nursing mothers.

Residents will pay for the facility through their property taxes, with nonresidents paying a daily fee, most likely $5, Langlois said. City employees would manage the flow of players.

A few people at the September meeting used the public comment time to say that the project should have been provided by the private sector. One objected to it, saying that pickleball is fad.

Henry Yanez has been the sole dissenter on the city council, voting against the new contracts. He also voted no in May 2024 on placing the ballot question before residents in the November election. Yanez was also the only no vote when the council approved a $319.9 million budget in May.

“He is glad that people like to play pickleball,” the official minutes of the meeting read of Yanez. “And he admitted the pickleball courts are very busy, but he felt that $10 million for a pickleball court, in addition to the interest they will pay from borrowing the money for it, may not be a good expenditure of the city’s dollars.”

City officials point to the public vote. “The pickleball courts are one of many projects included in the voter-approved Pathway to Play and Preservation Millage,” said Marissa Russo, marketing and communications manager for the City of Sterling Heights in an email to Michigan Capitol Confidential.

Yanez favors other priorities. “Spending tax dollars must be prioritized and elected officials must focus on funding essential services first,” Yanez told CapCon in an email.

Yanez was “concerned about transparency, especially when it comes to the debt,” the minutes of the May 6 council meeting read.

Yanez received some support from other members who later voted in favor of the project. During the May meeting, the minutes read, “Councilwoman Koski felt that the residents should be told what is being bonded and for what it is being used. She looked at a copy of the ballot question, and she cannot find anything in there that talked about bonding, borrowing money, or going into debt for these items.”

“He (Yanez) agreed with Councilwoman (Deanna) Koski that there was nothing on the ballot last fall that said voting yes on the millage would create $40 million of debt. He noted it passed by 700+ votes, and he questioned how many people would have voted yes had they known it would create debt.”

During the run-up to the new state budget, Sterling Heights was in the running for millions of dollars in earmarks, thanks in part to requests from Rep. Denise Mentzer, D-Mt. Clemens.

Mentzer’s requests for the city included:

• $2.1 million for a fire truck
• $6 million for a new fire station
• $2.1 million for a new fire truck and
• $2.6 million for a police training center
• $1.5 million to develop a park that will include outdoor pickleball courts.

By the time lawmakers adopted the 2025-26 budget, Sterling Heights received only one earmark, for $1 million to build a police training center. Rep. Paul Wojno, whose district includes Sterling Heights, was the leading sponsor.