A new racquet sports complex, focusing on tennis and pickleball, wants to set up along Archer Road, and the Alachua County Local Planning Agency and Planning Commission gave approval for a special exception on Wednesday evening, allowing the project to continue. 

The 21-acre parcel of land, 9409 SW Archer Rd., is located just outside Alachua County’s Urban Cluster boundary—near the historic Haile Homestead and next to Celebration United Methodist Church. Around 10 years ago, the property was intended as a recreation center for the YMCA, but that development never occurred.  

In more recent years, the site hosted the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire. 

The new development, called Flamingo Sports Center, aims for 5.1 acres of outdoor activity space. Outdoor recreation is allowed under Alachua County’s Land Development Code, but the code limits any permanent structures to 1,000 square feet.  

The complex wants 6,500 square feet for food options, a club store and ancillary activities. The rest of the activity space would be filled with pickleball and tennis courts along with a pool. 

Clay Sweger, director of planning for eda consultants, said the business thinks there’s a desire for outdoor recreation in the area with so many homes built close by, within the urban cluster. 

It would be a private club offering space for one of the fastest growing sports in the country. Other clubs also offer pickleball and tennis courts for members, like the 300 Club off NW 8th Avenue and DB Raquet Club on Millhopper Road, but the Flamingo Sports Center will be larger.  

The exact layout and metrics for the center will come forward in a development plan. Wednesday’s meeting gives permission for the development to come forward with more than the 1,000 square feet allowed by code. The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) will also need to approve the special exception.  

A lot of the meeting conversation centered on noise from the center, specifically from pickleball. The racquet sport has exploded in popularity and can also cause a racket, prompting articles from the New York Times on the topic.  

The sports center will use 10-foot-tall acoustic wraps to dampen the smack of the paddles. The wraps are rated to lower the noise by 24 decibels, and their use is included in a list of 13 conditions required for the development.  

The development moved the pickleball courts to the western side of the land to reduce impacts to a neighbor on the eastern side. The development also agreed to build a privacy fence along the property boundary in that area to shield the neighbor’s property from people using an outdoor trail that circles the property.  

Dave Larson, a stated representative of Celebration United Methodist Church, said their concern wasn’t noise but traffic and maintenance of the shared driveway. He said the grass along the driveway hasn’t been maintained, and the church worries what would happen if, for example, a sinkhole opened under the road.  

Sweger said the business intends to maintain its portion of the driveway and the overall parcel. Driveway maintenance will be the responsibility of whoever owns the land in that area since the driveway is split between the sports complex parcel and a development to the east.  

The property will be on well and septic since it sits outside the urban cluster—touching the border to the north. County staff said the development plan will require the center to mitigate properly and follow appropriate regulations.  

However, one commissioner noted that the noise and road traffic would already be allowed by right if the business had only 1,000 square feet of building space. The developer could install pickleball courts and move forward without acoustic wrapping if they wanted by lowering the building space.  

The planning commission voted 5-1 to approve the special use condition with all 13 conditions. Attempts by Commissioner Samuel Mutch to add conditions and limit hours of operation were unsuccessful, and he was the dissenting vote.  

The conditions limit the sports center to 6,500 square feet of building space, hours of operation from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day and 50 to 70 parking spaces—with grass overflow as needed.