Rolling Dunes Improvement Projects

Rolling Dunes is a neighborhood park in Florence Oregon.  It features the City’s pickleball and tennis courts, two restrooms, a picnic pavilion, drinking fountain, barbeque, horseshoe pit and community garden. Landscaping, natural trees and shrubs are dispersed throughout the 1.51-acre parcel.

The Improvements Project would expand the existing outdoor tennis and pickleball courts and upgrade accessibility features such as the parking area, curb ramp, and access route, at the neighborhood park. The court expansion will increase the current facility from 14,400 square feet to 18,600 square feet. Adding 2 new pickleball courts.

Rolling Dunes Park was reclassified from special use park to neighborhood park because there was a need for a neighborhood park in the area. Neighborhood parks are considered an ideal location for public courts such as tennis and pickleball by recreation managers. Four pickleball courts and 1 Tennis court are located at the park currently. This project will add two new pickle ball courts to the park facility to be enjoyed by residents and visitors in perpetuity. The facility will be free-of-charge and will help grow the ever expanding Florence Pickleball club (FLOPIBA). FLOPIBA regularly sees 30 member and visitors on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during the summer. Nationally, pickleball is the fastest growing sport among aging generations, which ensures this facility will be enjoyed by citizens for many years into the future.

The desire for more public pickleball courts has primarily been communicated to the City of Florence Public Works department and other managers by the local Florence Pickleball group, or FLOPIBA. As stated in the letters of support, FLOPIBA exceeds the park’s capacity during the summer. The group provides equipment such as nets and safe storage at Rolling Dunes Park. FLOPIBA members have fostered and demonstrated community and visitor support for pickleball and have the resources to organize tournaments at Rolling Dunes Park if more courts were available. Attendance at the group’s matches has grown steadily since the inception in 2016, and like national trends, pickleball is forecasted to continue gaining in popularity locally. This is especially true considering Florence has a median age of over 60.

We are proposing to expand the court and fence 30’ to the east and construct two additional standard 30 by 60-foot pickleball courts with fixed nets. A 120-foot by 30-foot site will be prepared for the construction of the new courts. There are currently four pickleball courts at Rolling Dunes Park. Two of the current pickleball courts meet the minimum playing surface recommendations while two others do not. Two of the four courts are shared with the only public tennis courts in Florence. This project will reduce conflicts between pickleball and tennis matches and increase the availability of the only two public tennis courts in Florence. This project would increase the number of simultaneous pickleball participants from 16 to 24, and the number of active pickleball matches from four to six. 

The project will remove the existing 120-foot east fence line at the court. This fence is galvanized chain link steel which will not be reusable after being deconstructed to expand the court. After the construction of the new pickleball courts, the entire new and existing court surfaces will need to be resurfaced. This project will resurface the existing shared tennis and pickleball courts. There are many variables that control the length of an outdoor tennis and pickleball court surface’s life expectancy, including average rainfall. The existing courts were resurfaced most recently in 2013. Considering the court surface is near the end of its life expectancy, the mobilization costs associated with contracting this work in the future, the likelihood of some minor damages to existing surfaces during the new construction, the City is proposing to resurface the existing and new courts concurrently.

Rolling Dunes Park was deeded to the City of Florence in 1981 and has not undergone major renovations since 1990. During the site evaluation, Florence Public Works staff determined the following features will require removal or renovation to comply with 2010 accessible design standards. The parking area at Rolling Dunes Court currently has a total of 14 parking spaces measuring approximately ten-feet wide. Two spaces in the northeast corner, nearest the access route and pickleball courts, will be restriped and converted to a van-accessible parking stall and passenger loading zone. The existing curb ramp does not meet 2010 requirements and will be replaced by a new ADA curb ramp. The existing curb ramp exceeds maximum running slope, wing slope, and is oriented incorrectly. The access route leading from the curb ramp to the gate was constructed with cross slopes in excess of four percent and will be removed and reconstructed. Operation of the current gate handle leading into the facility requires the user to reach up to 51 inches and will be renovated to operate within 34 and 48 inches. 

The site evaluation was conducted in October of 2021 by Florence Public Works Technicians with guidance from the Director of Public Works. These accessible design features will ensure residents and visitors with disabilities will enjoy the upgrades to Rolling Dune Park. In addition to these renovations, the City will integrate universal design features where they are feasible. For instance, the City will construct the new access route at a 48 to 60-inch continuous clear width so pedestrians may access the court pickleball and tennis facilities without obstruction.