Centre Hills Country Club is moving through the planning process for additions that will include a new pool, poolhouse and more at the eastern end of its property.
But neighboring residents along Scenery Drive and Scenery Court in College Township are worried about one aspect in particular: pickleball courts, and their accompanying lights and noise.
The project calls for two pickleball courts and four tennis courts surrounded by 10-foot black vinyl coated fences and wind screens, according to the final land development plan submitted to State College Borough and College Township.
The country club is also seeking a variance to install 20-foot lights at the court, which Mark Toretti, of project engineer PennTerra said at Wednesday’s State College Planning Commission meeting are needed for safe play. The permitted limit in the borough’s zoning ordinance is 15 feet. The 20-foot standards, Toretti said, would comply with the borough’s light trespass ordinance, meaning they would not shine directly onto neighboring properties.
Borough zoning prohibits court lights from being illuminated between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. The lights for the new courts would be on motion sensors during permitted hours, Toretti said, and would be illuminated at 25% until players enter the court, when they would automatically go to full brightness.
The project also will include landscape buffering, some of which Toretti said will be heavier near the closest residential properties, with canopy and evergreen trees and shrubs.
A zoning hearing board hearing on the lighting variance request began on March 26 and was continued to April 9.
Residents of the Canterbury Crossing and Nittany View Meadow neighborhoods that surround the eastern end of the club have been voicing concerns since a preliminary land development plan was submitted last year.
The project is planned near the country club’s Clark nine-hole course on a largely undeveloped section of the country club property that neighbors say has always been quiet and dark.
“Right now it is virtually silent there,” said Keith Bocchicchio, president of the Nittany View Meadow condominium owners association and the Windmere Park Association. “We don’t even hear a golfer say ‘fore.’ It’s a huge change to the area and a huge impact on the residential communities surrounding this project.”
Even if the lights meet the borough’s trespass requirements, they will still be “very annoying because of the glow,” Scenery Court resident Murry Nelson said, adding that they should be kept at the permitted 15 feet.
“It seems specious to [increase the height] when there is much more to harm people who are nearby rather than the safety of people who are playing and could play at another time,” Nelson said.
Centre Hills management said they did not expect the outdoor components of the project to be used between fall and spring, but Nelson said “some people are zealous enough that [they] will play all year round.”
Scenery Court resident Simba Zaffino said that her second-floor bedroom and workspace look out directly over the project area.
“First and foremost, I’m really concerned about the light projecting into the back of my townhouse, since I am the closest to the courts and the building site,” Zaffino said.
Like others, though, her biggest concern is noise. Pickleball strikes can reach volumes of up to 70 decibels from a distance of 100 feet, and some nearby residences are fewer than 200 feet away from the planned court area.
“My biggest pain point living so close is the potential of the noise constantly all day long for this long period of time,” Zaffino said.
“I think the country club could have located those courts in other places where they would not have this kind of impact on the community,” Bocchicchio added.
It’s not the first time pickleball has been an issue in the Centre Region. In 2020 and 2021, Park Forest Village residents complained that pickleball play at Green Hollow Park had become a nuisance because of constant noise and increased traffic.
The township eventually reduced hours at the courts before ultimately restriping them for tennis and adding pickleball courts at Bernel Road Park.
Residents near the planned Centre Hills courts say the noise is all but certain to be an issue there unless the country club installs further measures to mitigate the noise.
“The plan shows no evidence that it is going to comply with State College’s noise control ordinance. This is a big issue,” Bocchicchio said. “There is mitigation that can be done and can be included in these courts, but it comes at a very high price, and I suspect that the issue is that the country club does not want to spend the money to provide the noise suppression that is needed. These trees and buffering and the type of fence they are talking about are not going to attenuate sound adequately at less than 200 feet from those courts.”
The new pool and pool house will add to the noise, Bocchicchio said.
Further compounding the matter is the question of exactly who will enforce noise violations and how. The country club is located in State College Borough, while the access drive off Scenery Road and all of the surrounding residences are in College Township.
The township’s ordinance describes unreasonable noise exceeding 58 decibels in a residential zone as a disturbance. The borough’s ordinance does not set a specific decibel limit but in part defines a noise disturbance as “excessive or unreasonably loud noise which disturbs the peace, comfort or repose of others… by being plainly audible to persons within any dwelling… other than that from which it originates.”
Borough Planning Director Ed LeClear said the question needs to be resolved.
“I just don’t have a clear legal answer for that yet,” LeClear said. “From a staff standpoint, we want to get to the bottom of that so we know how, if there are noise violation requests coming from College Township residents, how that might be enforced in the borough.”
Residents also said they have had no direct communication with club management or project representatives, other than speaking with Toretti before and after public meetings.
“I feel this was trying to be snuck in underneath us with no knowledge, and it’s going to have a major impact,” Scenery Court resident Patty Coates said.
WHAT ELSE IS PLANNED
The project is slated to include 3,504-square-foot surface area pool, with a surrounding deck, patio and lawn, according to plans presented by Toretti and Judson Hornfeck, of project architect Chambers. The pool will be open from around Memorial Day to Labor Day
A 5,636-square-foot pool house with a covered breezeway will have changing rooms, restrooms, a lifeguard office, casual dining area, kitchen and two golf simulators.
The 32-foot-tall pool house will be open year-round, with the simulators expected to be in use from November through March.
It will have a “contemporary farmhouse aesthetic,” Hornfeck said, with wood-look plank siding, stone veneer and a roof with architectural shingles, metal roof accents, dormers and canopies.
Pending approvals, construction is expected to begin Aug. 1 for an opening by Memorial Day 2025.
In addition to a resolution of the lighting variance request, the next step is for the borough planning office to provide a conditional approval letter with requirements that must be met before the plan can be recorded and construction can begin.
“At the end of the day, if the ordinance is met, we have to approve it from a legal standpoint,” LeClear said at the start of Wednesday’s planning commission meeting. “I just want everyone to be aware that there’s very little discretion in this process. It’s really about whether the ordinance is met or not. That’s our role from a planning staff standpoint, to ensure that occurs before a certificate of occupancy is issued.”
