Reston’s Barton Hill tennis courts to close ahead of renovation | FFXnow

Reston Association is preparing to serve up a full renovation of its Barton Hill tennis courts next month.

The four existing courts at 1901 Barton Hill off of Sunrise Valley Drive will close after June 30 in anticipation of the renovation, which is expected to begin in July, RA announced in a newsletter on Friday (June 14).

“Staff made the decision to close courts at this time as cracking in the courts has led to unsafe conditions for play,” RA said. “Neighbors in the area are also asked to avoid using the parking lot immediately adjacent to the courts, as construction crews will be using this area for staging and access to the site.”

The renovation will deliver a new asphalt surface, fencing, nets and color coating, but it won’t add pickleball courts as previously planned.

Built in 1985, the Barton Hill tennis courts underwent repairs in 2011 and 2017 to address cracks in their asphalt surface, but after previously fixed cracks reemerged in 2021, the RA Board of Directors approved $851,000 in funding for a renovation project that it hoped could be completed by fall 2022.

However, that accelerated timeline got stalled by a dispute with Fairfax County, which determined RA would need to get a plan amendment approved in order to install 23 LED light poles at the facility. RA ultimately dropped lighting from the project after the county’s Board of Zoning Appeals affirmed its zoning administrator’s decision.

The project also encountered challenges from residents who worried that converting two of the tennis courts into permanent pickleball courts, while allowing the other two courts to be shared-use, would create noise and parking issues.

RA initially scaled back its pickleball plans, proposing to create four courts instead of six and to remove the blended lines on the designated shared-use courts. However, this January, the Board of Directors voted to drop pickleball from the project altogether, suggesting more work could be done to determine the need for facilities to support the trendy sport in Reston.

Now focused on refurbishing the existing courts, construction on the renovation project is expected to wrap up next spring, according to RA.