A large-scale revamp to a popular Leland park is in limbo over a dispute about the placement of additional pickleball courts.

Hancock Recreational Area (often called Hancock Field) is a roughly 13-acre parcel that sits just south of the Leland Country Club. It’s owned by the township, but Leland Public School leases it and has used it for various sports for decades.

Both the school and the township launched separate plans more than a year ago to implement various improvements to the park. The township planned to focus on improvements and new amenities in the northernmost portion of the property, with the school focusing on the rest (largely green areas and athletic fields).

The combined improvements would likely have cost millions and given Hancock Field a comprehensive upgrade that would benefit both township residents and students. Aside from the pickleball courts, other potential improvements included an ice staking rink and new playground.

Now, the school is bothered by the township’s plans to place several additional pickleball courts over an existing little league field, which doesn’t mesh with the school’s plans that preserve the field in question.

“Our continuing goal is to advocate for improvements that provide the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people, both the school community and the community of Leland Township itself, and we feel that paving over any of the existing field space would further constrain the park (and result in) a net reduction of green space,” Leland Public School Superintendent Ryan Huppert tells The Ticker.

Huppert says the school controls by deed the existing pickleball and tennis courts at the northwest corner of the property, but has offered to revert that deed to the township so that more pickleball courts could be added there instead of elsewhere.

Leland Township Supervisor Clint Mitchell tells The Ticker it’s “just not feasible” to add more courts at the current location. He cites concerns that include having to cut down trees and/or move an existing drainfield to build more courts. He also says the township is sensitive about adding more courts so close to homes, as the existing location is right at the property line.

“We just don’t think it’s appropriate to have pickleball courts right next to people’s houses,” he said. “We want to be good neighbors.”

Huppert largely dismissed those concerns.

“There are ways to (build more courts) that don't require cutting that many trees. And drain fields are easily moved if we're redoing the parking lot anyhow. And the neighbor who lives next to the pickleball courts moved there after those pickleball courts were already there,” he says. “So I think we beg to differ on the feasibility of whether or not you could creatively add more pickleball there.”

Huppert hopes that the township will come around on the issue.

“The reality is the township's property and we recognize that they have authority over the decisions about its future use,” he says. “Our hope is that they would take into account the offer that we made and the needs that we have and realize that there is a way that this would be mutually beneficial to expand where the current pickleball court is.”

In the meantime, the school is committed to executing various improvements to other fields and facilities at Hancock Field, Huppert says.

Mitchell said the township’s plans will basically pause for now. Though he maintains plenty of township residents want more pickleball courts, he says the township is not likely to pursue them if there is considerable opposition.

“I don’t know where we go from here, because if we don't have pickleball courts, there’s not really a reason to go forward,” he says. “Because we can clean up the park, we can build a playground at some point, and we already have the basketball court, but there's nothing for us to do on a large scale. Pickleball was kind of the linchpin of the plan and of the interest and financing for it.”

Mitchell expressed frustration, saying that the township has been “nothing but open and forthright” with the school and has always been clear with its plans for more pickleball.

“And suddenly these pickleball courts have become some odd flashpoint of existential metaphor in Leland of the haves versus the have mores, and the seasonal versus year-round, and the township versus the school,” Mitchell says. “And it's just not a fight we're interested in having.”