The Next Pickleball Courts Near Kill Devil Hills Will All Be Outdoors

"We all give back to the community. But you've got to keep us healthy. You've got to keep us exercising."

A player who called herself part of "the pickleball crowd" said that at the Dare County Youth Center on October 7, at the last community meeting before the county's sales tax referendum, as the Outer Banks Voice reported. At the same meeting, one man tossed a pickleball at County Manager Bobby Outten to show how wind pushes the ball around on outdoor courts. Several speakers asked for indoor courts.

The pitch makes more sense once you see the county's own plans. Dare County has ten new courts nearly finished in Nags Head and another $1 million set aside for courts if the referendum passes. Every one of them is outdoors. For now, indoor play in Kill Devil Hills still happens in one building on Mustian Street, and that building comes with rules of its own.

One campus on Mustian Street holds most of the game

Dare County runs its Northern Beach pickleball program in two places at the same address, 602 Mustian Street: the Youth Center and the outdoor courts at Family Recreation Park. The park has four public tennis courts, with lights on timers until 11 p.m. Courts 3 and 4 have removable pickleball nets.

The county's posted pickleball sheet, dated October 26 through 30, says the outdoor courts are reserved for open pickleball Monday through Saturday, 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. Outside those hours, residents and visitors can play whenever the courts aren't booked by another group. The same sheet carries a parking note too. Players should use the lot for the Youth Center building, not the Outer Banks Brewing Station lot next door.

So two lighted courts carry the outdoor open play for the county's northern beach program. Players who want shelter from the wind head inside the Youth Center, and that's where the limits begin.

Indoor play runs on a tighter schedule

Inside the Youth Center, play is split by skill level. Here is the posted schedule for the week of October 26:

Three rules shape who gets on the indoor courts. For now they are open only to residents and property owners. Players must be at least 18. And each player sticks to the session for their own level, one level per day. The county's membership registration lists a $0 fee for residents, but you still need an account, a signed waiver and the required forms before your first session.

There's nothing posted for evenings or weekends. Tuesday has advanced play only. Each level gets about two hours a day. That's the indoor time players were asking the county to expand. The schedule also changes from week to week, and the county's pickleball page points players to the weekly calendar for updates. That matters this month especially: county Parks & Recreation canceled or postponed its October 17 activities ahead of the storm.

Ten new courts, all outside, in Nags Head

The biggest change coming to local pickleball is a short drive south. Dare County is building a 10-court complex at the Soundside Event Site in Nags Head, on the former Pamlico Jack's property. The plans include regulation courts, lighting, fencing, sidewalks, utility extensions and parking changes.

How the project came together:

1. February 2026. Under an initial 10-year agreement, Dare County will operate and maintain the courts, and the Dare County Tourism Board will maintain the property around them.
2. June 2026. The county approved Barnhill Contracting's $651,110 construction bid. The county and the Tourism Board are splitting costs equally, up to $1.13 million.
3. July 27, 2026. Site work began.
4. Late October or early November 2026. This was the projected finish in the county's August 4 update.

As of this week, no opening date has been announced. Hours, fees and reservation rules haven't been published yet either. On the day this post goes live, the project is still somewhere inside its projected window.

To put the size in perspective, ten courts at one site is five times the number of pickleball-netted courts at Family Recreation Park. It will be the largest public group of courts near Kill Devil Hills. Like the Mustian Street courts, it's all outdoors, so the same wind the meeting crowd described will shape play there too.

What the November 3 ballot would fund, and what it leaves out

Next is the referendum. On November 3, 2026, Dare County voters will decide on a one-quarter-cent sales tax increase, which would take the rate from 6.75% to 7%. The county estimates it would raise about $6 million a year and allow it to borrow nearly $57 million for parks and recreation work. In September, commissioners unanimously agreed that the money would go to the projects in the Dare County Parks & Recreation Recommendations and Implementation 2025–2035 Plan.

Two items in that plan bear directly on the Mustian Street campus. A third covers new courts. Kill Devil Hills also has a fourth item, the Baum Senior Center, but it doesn't touch pickleball:

• Dare County Youth Center at Family Recreation Park. Building repairs and improvements estimated at $15 million, the largest single line in the plan.
• Thomas A. Baum Senior Center in Kill Devil Hills. Building repairs and improvements estimated at $3 million.
• Outdoor pickleball courts. An estimated $1 million for the Northern Beach and Hatteras Island divisions. No sites or court counts are named.

On the county's proposed-projects page, the Family Recreation Park entries include replacing the pickleball fence and updating the tennis-court lighting. The plan doesn't include an indoor pickleball facility. The building where indoor play happens today would get the plan's biggest renovation budget, but the published materials don't say how that work would change indoor court time.

The Outer Banks Voice article also captured a few points from the October 7 meeting that explain how the county is approaching this:

"we need more tennis courts, we need more pickleball courts…"

Outten said the focus on recreation came from feedback like that. He added that the county would address a "broader cross-section" of needs. Some speakers suggested opening school gyms in summer for indoor play. Outten explained that Dare County Schools, not the county commissioners, controls school facilities. When asked about a backup plan if the measure fails, he said land transfer taxes aren't a workable option because that money is already committed elsewhere. If the measure passes, the county takes on 20 years of debt payments. In his words, "they're locked in."

If voters approve the measure, work would begin in 2027, depending on bidding, permits and available land. The order of projects would be decided later.

Where else to play while you wait

When the Mustian Street courts are full, there are a few other public options nearby, all outdoors:

• Meekins Field, Kill Devil Hills. In a May 2024 update, the town said two courts had been repaved and restriped for pickleball and were open again. Check the current setup before you plan a morning around it.
• Dowdy Park, 3005 S. Croatan Highway, Nags Head. The Town of Nags Head lists one pickleball court here, with no reservations.

For a player in Kill Devil Hills, the short-term outlook comes down to four facts. Outdoor open play runs 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday on two netted courts at Family Recreation Park. Indoor sessions run on weekdays at the Youth Center for residents and property owners. Ten outdoor courts are due at the Soundside Event Site this fall. Any courts funded by the referendum couldn't break ground before 2027.

My background is in custom-home building, so I tend to read facility plans for what's actually included: the $15 million Youth Center line, the fence replacement, the lighting update. I follow them as closely as I follow anything in our towns. If you'd like to talk about how county projects like these fit into life in Kill Devil Hills, or you just want to compare notes on the Mustian Street schedule, Cameron Griggs is happy to hear from you. Let's Connect.