Proposal for a public/private Lafayette Racquet Club going forward
There is a new topic in Boulder County tennis circles.
Boulder resident Steve LeBlang has put forward a proposal to turn an underdeveloped piece of public property between Lafayette and Louisville into a combined tennis/pickleball center. The hope is to create a public/private facility with eight indoor tennis courts, twelve outdoor tennis courts, and eight covered pickleball courts.
Although fees will be charged, the model for this facility, according to LeBlang, will not be that of an exclusive country club, but rather based on the example of the Parker Racquet Club, a well-known, successful public/private tennis center south of Denver.
There is at least one major point working in the proposal’s favor: The 48-acre property, shared by Lafayette and Louisville, was set aside back in 2014 with the stipulation that it be used for “athletic fields and similar development.” LeBlang will need to work with the Lafayette, Louisville, and Boulder County governments to make it happen.
To that end, the proposal will need the strong backing of the Boulder County tennis community. The Boulder Tennis Association’s stand is that any new courts in Boulder County that allow for social and league play at a reasonable cost can only be a blessing. And a facility that can also provide indoor courts for our working tennis players, a chance of hosting CU women’s practices and matches, and a possibility for hosting major tennis tournaments and events, would just be an added bonus.
Of course, we know what an uphill push this can be (see the recently torpedoed Tennis Center of the Rockies proposal for the Gunbarrel area, which BTA also supported). But in our opinion, at this early date, there seem to be fewer downsides to the Lafayette Racquet Club proposal.
If you want to learn more, get involved, or contribute, please check out the following resources…
Daily Camera article: Boulder Man Details New Tennis Proposal
Lafayette Racquet Club Website (with much more info)
More coverage of our local court issues
In addition to the publicity around the proposal above, Boulder tennis has been garnering other notice. Most notably, an even-handed article that appeared in WestWord this week, describing the issue of our shrinking pool of public tennis courts lost to development and conversion to pickleball courts. You can read it here…
Boulder tennis community “endangered” amid court shortage, pickleball boom
And finally, the “Save Boulder Tennis” initiative described in our last newsletter is gathering steam. Focused on funding a full-page ad in the Daily Camera highlighting the tennis court shortage (both indoor and outdoor) the GoFundMe site has garnered $2,725.00 of its $5,000.00 goal as of August 3. And the Change.org petition highlighting the same issue now has 79 signatures and counting. For more information, or to help the cause, follow the link below…
