We are building a house on a new development and have the block opposite the "park" on the dev plan. What they are building does not quite meet our expectations of a small urban park on a residential street metres from houses. We had imagined a bench, a few swings for the children and a climbing frame, but no its a basketball court. To say I am a little annoyed is an understatement. Why on earth would I want teenagers banging balls outside my front door all day and evening and having to look out on a 6ft high fence to keep the balls out of my window / road? I know that all ages of children should be catered for, but this to me is a play park location not a sports location. There is a disused oval, next to a school and childcare centre in the suburb - why not locate this there?

Anyway rant over - do you think there is anything I can do about it or I am just going to have to get use to the noise? The problem is as is a building site I do not know the neighbours so I can not get a group of us to complain.

Am I going OTT or would you be annoyed?

WDYT? Karen

Bummer - I'd be a bit annoyed too.

Definitely make some phone calls or write some letters - I'm not sure if they will change it now, but you may as well raise the issue with someone.

With any luck there'll be hardly any teenagers in the new area anyway and it will be fairly quiet.

I would be annoyed, absolutely. I would make an effort to knock on doors and see if they wanted to do something, just because you haven't actually built yet doesn't mean you can't have a say. We all know that basketball courts will have teenagers hanging around at all hours as well. One good thing at least it is not a skate park!!
Good luck with it
Robyn

I'm not sure what can be done about it, I don't blame you for being peeved though!!

I wouldnt be annoyed at all. If your building and given the size of the blocks released these days, I think it is great that there is a space for teenagers, anybody really, to run off a bit steam instead of being in their homes. At some point your own children will be able to enjoy the facilities instead of trying to bounce a ball in the tiny yard.

We live very close to the sports oval, every weekend over summer they have athletics that starts pretty early, and most weekdays towards the end of the year there is the sports carnivals. We're on a small block too, but I love that Grace and I have somewhere very close to kick a ball.

Is it just a basketball court and no play equipment?

If it's just the court then obviously they haven't catered for all age groups and that's what I'd be jumping up and down about.

Is there a developers office on site (usually a little demountable)? I'd have a word to them and I'd even be calling the Planning Mintister to get a response from his office. Defenitely worth complaining about, perhaps others have already complained? There's also the Tuggeranong Council (not sure of their official title) who could give you advice and even speak to the Minister or developers on your behalf.

Good luck

You may be more annoyed if you lived opposite it...traffic, noise etc.

It looks like there will be a place for the play equipment as well, but the court in right next to the houses. It is about 6/8m away from the garden fences of a row of townhouses and literally just on the other side of a small road from our block. I am delighted they are catering for older children, but I do not think that they should put things that create excess noise, particularly in the evening so close. I currently only live a couple of minutes walk from the skate park and it is not problem because it is not next door to the houses. I have commented several times how great it is to see the park busy at all times.

I think I will call around those contacts tomorrow, thanks.

Karen

No thats the thing we are only 100m from it and our street is the only street you can use to get to it. I can understand how it might frustrate others but it works for us.

Is the court pretty small? a half court? Can you find out if they're planning on putting lighting there (unlikely). That's when I'd start to be worried about evening noise. If it won't be well lit then that won't be so bad....but be prepared for cracker night! Actually that's probably a positive having all your neighbours over there letting them off!

Ok so what is cracker night???

I do think if they knew it was to be for basketball they should have labelled it 'Basketball court' on the plan, instead of 'park'.

It is labelled "Public Open Space"

Cracker Night is celebrated on Queen's Birthday long weekend. It is when residents are allowed to let off Fireworks from their home. At that time, Yeah, you might have a problem with Kids stealing a few crackers and taking off down the park so mum and dad dont see.

hehe sorry hope I didn't scare you!!! Cracker night is pretty harmless, just noisey.

Hi Shine. No advice to offer, sorry, but I hope you get it sorted out. I can understand why you would be annoyed.

We are building opposite a small lake. That was one of the reasons we chose the block, but now I'm a bit worried about it being a drowning risk for DS, after all I've heard about children drowning lately.

Depends on what exactly they're building there.
My sis lives opposite a play area with a basketball court and cricket practice nets. No problems with balls in her front yard, they all stay within the confines of the play area across the road. Plus, because it's mostly grassy area, it's fun for her little boy to play there. And it's not really that busy.

So if it's not going to be a fully concreted basketball-only area, it would still be lots of fun for all kids to play, and you shouldn't expect too much trouble with balls etc.

TBH, wouldn't really worry me, but I seem to be in the minority. We are living backing a reserve and I love hearing the teenagers ride their BMX and dirt 'bikes up our reserve. I also like the fact that there are loads of older kids that walk their dogs and rough house with their mates out the back. It's great that they frequent the 3 local playgrounds near my place. Much better than them getting into mischief where you can't see them (like I did at that age.... ).

There's a court in the adjacent suburb that my dh sometimes walks the children over to play on. They hit a tennis ball against a wall and shoot the odd basket.

Give it a few years and your own children may be enjoying it .