Plans for new indoor and outdoor pickleball courts and other proposed investments can move forward at Wilmington’s Holly Tree Racquet Club, following action by Wilmington leaders on Tuesday.

The Wilmington City Council unanimously approved a special use permit for the project, called The Club at Midtown, which is slated for a 7.3-acre site at 4950 Holly Tree and 304 Westchester roads. Plans for the facility include converting several existing tennis courts into 10 pickleball courts, developing a roughly 33,000-square-foot indoor pickleball facility, renovating the 5,700-square-foot clubhouse and adding more parking.

The site has operated as a private tennis facility since 1994, and it's currently home to 10 tennis courts, a clubhouse and a pool, said Sam Potter, an attorney with Wilmington's Equitas Law Partners. Potter represented Mike Harms, the special use permit applicant and project developer, during Tuesday’s meeting.

Initially, the proposal included a simulated golf driving range, which has been removed from the project, Potter said.

“The amount of pushback we got from the community and the neighbors and, quite frankly, planning staff caused us to withdraw the golf facility,” he told city leaders on Tuesday. “So, I want to be clear, there is no outdoor golf facility that’s a part of this.”

After removing golf, Potter said, a special use permit was a better fit for the project than the rezoning the developer had previously pursued. A special use permit is needed because plans propose adding impervious surface and indoor square footage, Potter said.

“We couldn’t make the changes to the site that we’re proposing without getting a special use permit,” he said.

During a quasi-judicial hearing on Tuesday, several residents who live in the surrounding Westchester neighborhood voiced concerns about how the proposal would impact traffic, noise levels and stormwater runoff in the area.

Potter told city leaders that Harms agreed to several conditions that would address some of the neighbors’ concerns. For example, those playing on outdoor pickleball courts will be required to use sound-reducing paddles and tournament play will be restricted to the facility’s indoor courts. 

Harms also agreed to cap the club’s membership at 800, to begin outdoor pickleball play no earlier than 9 a.m. on weekdays and to allow public access to a walkway that runs through the facility. The developer also has plans to install fencing and other materials to limit sound from outdoor courts. 

“Those courts will be surrounded by a product called acoustifence, which is an engineered sound-deadening mat, essentially,” Potter said.

Harms is also proposing investments in the site’s clubhouse and adding a 50-seat restaurant. He’s also looking to refurbish the existing outdoor swimming pool and to add a poolhouse. The project proposes the addition of 139 parking spaces, said Nick Lauretta, the project's engineering consultant. The site currently has about 40 to 50 spaces spread across a concrete and gravel lot.

The new project is expected to generate 364 average daily vehicle trips, Lauretta said, about 60 more than the site's current use.