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Pickleball takes center court Sport gathers steam at area rec facilities By SYDNEY DANGREMOND sydney@appenmedia.com NORTH METRO ATLANTA — Four and a-half years ago, Bob Gerndt picked up a pickleball paddle for the first time. He hasn’t put it down since. Gerndt, 76, plays five or six days a week and coordinates a roster of over 300 beginning-level pickleball players at Forsyth County’s Fowler Recreation Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Pickleball — a cross between tennis, badminton and ping pong — is the fastest growing sport in America, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. Almost 5 million people are playing across the country, nearly double the number five years ago. Metro Atlanta is deep into the pickleball craze. More often than not, there are more players than available space at the Fowler Center courts, so there’s some decent downtime between games. “We get so many people that we all spend a lot of time sitting on the bleachers, and we get to know each other,” Gerndt said. “And pretty soon we’re going out to lunch with each other and really getting to enjoy learning about each other.” Evan Hecht, an avid player from Johns Creek picked up the sport last fall. “If you’re interested in a great exer-
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Johns Creek redrafts code to limit spread of smoke shops By SYDNEY DANGREMOND sydney@appenmedia.com
SYDNEY DANGREMOND/APPEN MEDIA
Pickleball players prepare to serve in a game at Fowler Park Recreation Center March 3. The players are members of a beginners league in the fastest growing sport in America. cise while having fun, pickleball is probably one of the easiest things you can do to get both,” Hecht said. The low threshold of entry is a major draw. Paddles and balls can be had for less than $100, and many local parks have them available for loan. Phenomenal growth Pickleball first made its way to the north metro area about six years ago. Forsyth County got its first pickleball-compliant courts around 2015 when it striped some courts at Fowler Park, Recreation Supervisor Zak Moore said.
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The sport takes up less space than a tennis or basketball court, so many areas have simply added the regulation court lines to existing courts. Gerndt’s Tuesday/Thursday pickleballers play in the basketball gyms at Fowler, with three pickleball courts occupying the same space as two basketball courts. But the group often ends up taking up both basketball gyms — a total of six pickleball courts, Gerndt said. Roswell began its dive into the sport around 2019 after converting a skate
See PICKLEBALL, Page 17
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JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — City Council members unanimously approved a zoning ordinance Feb. 28 that will severely hinder the influx of new smoke shop businesses to the city. The measure passed roughly four hours before the city’s six-month moratorium on accepting and processing new smoke shop business tax certificates and building permit applications expired. Johns Creek has 10 smoke shops within its boundaries. Nine of them opened in the past seven years. Since the moratorium took effect in August, the city’s Community Development Department has been scrambling to come up with a more permanent method to limit growth of the businesses, Community Development Director Ben Song said. At the Feb. 28 meeting, council members unanimously approved the text amendment to the zoning code which limits new smoke shop businesses to one zoning district in the city and imposes distance requirements. The ordinance also includes a defini-
See ORDINANCE, Page 6