Greenwood Village Put Its New Pickleball Courts Next to I-25, and the Noise Is Part of the Reason

Greenwood Village is putting four new pickleball courts on the surface lot east of the Arapahoe at Village Center light rail station. The site sits between I-25, a parking garage and a row of office buildings. RTD scheduled the lot to close Nov. 9 so the city could begin turning it into a park.

The traffic, the concrete and the distance from homes that make the site an odd place for a park are the same things that helped it get approved. Those choices also decide how you'll get to the train and how the courts will play.

What's closing, and what keeps running

RTD's Nov. 2 service notice covers only the surface lot. Everything else at the station stays in service: the Park-n-Ride garage, the bus terminals, the walkway and pedestrian bridge, and light rail. RTD says the path from the garage to the bridge over I-25 and on to the platform stays open throughout construction.

If you used to park on the surface lot, your morning now looks like this:

1. Park in the garage. RTD's station page lists 817 parking spaces at 8800 E. Caley Ave.
2. Expect the same fees. RTD's listing says the first 24 hours are free for in-district vehicles and $2 a day after that. Out-of-district vehicles pay $4 a day, and you pay before boarding.
3. Use the same bridge. The garage connects to the pedestrian path over I-25 and the light rail platform, and construction doesn't change that route.
4. Catch your bus where you always have. The station serves routes 66, 153, 169 and AT.
5. Sign up for alerts. RTD points riders to its Service Alerts for detours or service changes while the work goes on.

The lot was never really station infrastructure. The city owns it. It was platted in 2014 for a Westin hotel whose plans expired before anything was built, and since then it has served as overflow Park-n-Ride parking connected to the station by the bridge.

Three hundred spaces become forty-eight

The City Council packet for the Aug. 3, 2026 hearing gives the site its official name, Greenwood Village Open Space at Arapahoe Station. The 3.57 acres at 8880 E. Caley Ave. go from almost all pavement to mostly open ground.

The 48 remaining spaces are split by purpose. Four accessible spaces sit right beside the courts. Eight existing spaces stay for RTD users, close to the pedestrian bridge and the elevator up to the station. The plan signs the court parking as reserved for that use.

Traffic will move in one direction. Cars enter from Willow Drive on the east side and leave onto Caley Avenue at the north end. The drive ends in a cul-de-sac designed for dropping off bus and light rail riders.

The city waived a traffic study, and staff found that no road improvements or traffic mitigation were needed. Less pavement also means less runoff. Storm drainage will still flow north and east to the regional detention pond at Caley Pond, and the reduced volume fits within what that system can already handle.

Why the loudest lot in the Village got the courts

Pickleball's sharp paddle sound has caused friction in neighborhoods across Colorado. Greenwood Village leaned on a neighboring city's research when it chose the site. As quoted in the council staff report, the City of Centennial's pickleball noise study says:

"courts within 350 feet of residential properties in most cases require noise abatement. Pickleball court sites within 500 to 600 feet of noise-sensitive areas should be reviewed by a qualified acoustical engineer during the site selection phase of the project."

The nearest homes are about 1,000 feet northeast of the courts, well past both of those thresholds. The city's Parks, Trails, and Recreation department wrote to one neighbor that noise was an important factor in picking this location for more courts.

Distance alone didn't settle it. On July 7, 2026, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted 7-0 to recommend the site plan. It also voted 7-0 for the special use permit, on the condition that the city commission a sound study for this specific site. The city hired Wave Engineering. The study applied Colorado's commercial noise limits with a 5 dB reduction for impulsive sounds like a paddle strike, which sets the daytime threshold at 55 dBA, measured 25 feet beyond the property line. At that distance, it predicts single strikes in the high 70s to low 80s dBA. At the homes 1,000 feet to the northeast, the prediction drops to 58 dBA, slightly above that threshold.

Wave Engineering recommended three measures:

• A mass-loaded vinyl acoustic barrier on the north side of the chain-link fence around the courts
• Sound-absorbing panels to cut reflected noise that could carry toward homes
• Encouraging quieter paddles and balls, which the report concedes may be hard to enforce

The study's main conclusion explains the site choice. It expects the existing noise from Interstate 25, the parking structure east of the courts and the surrounding commercial buildings to cover much of the sound of play. On that basis, it predicts minimal impact on the nearest neighborhood.

Not everyone agreed. The city mailed 1,215 notices and received seven written comments by July 29, all opposed. Most raised noise. Nearby households said they already hear concerts at Fiddler's Green, Centennial Airport traffic and I-25. One letter pointed out that the Centennial report itself says busy highways generally don't mask pickleball noise. It also said the two five-story parking structures and the ten-story Spectrum office building could bounce sound around rather than block it. The barrier and absorbing panels in the plan are aimed at that reflected sound.

The packet also put an intergovernmental agreement with Arapahoe County for grant funding for the courts on the council's agenda. By September, the city's newsletter described them as "newly approved" in Mayor George Lantz's monthly message.

What the finished park is built to be

The same features that kept the courts quiet enough to approve also shape how the park will work. The courts are unlighted, and the site plan sets park hours from dawn to dusk. With no lights, play ends when it gets dark, which comes early in late fall and winter.

The site stays an office-corridor park. Staff described it as serving both the surrounding office workers and Village residents, in line with the comprehensive plan's goal of keeping a park-like feel along the Interstate Corridor. Players can walk in from the bus terminal, the garage or the light rail bridge, which makes these some of the easiest courts in the area to reach without a car.

Here's what the plan lists for the grounds:

• Four public pickleball courts covering 8,704 square feet, owned, run and maintained by the city
• Six-foot stone seat walls, bike racks and trash receptacles
• New landscaping around the courts and parking, with existing landscaping and site amenities kept
• Native grasses replanted across the rest of the old lot
• Existing light poles kept along the parking areas and removed from the new open space

The project dates back to a neighborhood input meeting at the city's Maintenance Facility on Nov. 13, 2025, when the concept went out for comment. A year later, the parking lot is giving way to the park. The pedestrian bridge and the bus terminals stay open at all times under the site plan, and the garage handles commuter parking.

Projects like this one can change how buyers see the blocks around a station, and how they weigh things like a walkable court, a different commute or a new source of sound. If you own a home near Arapahoe at Village Center and want to know what changes like these could mean for its value, Johnny Lee can walk you through recent sales nearby and what they show. Get your instant home valuation to start.