Camarillo Pickleball Courts: Where to Play and What's Next

Right now the Pleasant Valley Recreation & Park District has eight courts in Camarillo where you can play pickleball. Four of them are set aside for pickleball alone, and all four are at Bob Kildee Community Park. The district expects Ran Rancho Park, a new five-acre park in the Springville Specific Plan area, to open this month with four pickleball courts. That would take the count from eight to twelve, a 50 percent jump. Freedom Park has been the district's best-known pickleball plan since 2021, and its new courts will come later. That project is in its second round of building permits.

Camarillo's next court capacity is coming from a park that was part of a housing plan, and it should be ready before the dedicated complex.

Where you can play today, and which courts have lights

The district's own pickleball and tennis courts page lists three parks with pickleball. Their hours, lighting and reservation rules differ more than the court counts suggest.

After dark, the table gets shorter. Pitts Ranch has no lights, so once the sun sets in fall and winter, the only lit courts left are the five at Bob Kildee and the single dual-use court at Springville. Pitts Ranch's two courts also run on a set schedule that splits time between tennis and pickleball. Tennis can start at 7 a.m., and pickleball starts at 8.

District programs share all three parks. Agape runs pickleball clinics and leagues at Springville and Bob Kildee, and you register through Agape rather than the district. The district asks players to follow the signs posted at each park for public play times, because program blocks can close courts during hours that would otherwise be open.

Bob Kildee runs on a paddle rack

Bob Kildee is the only place in the district with courts dedicated to pickleball, so it has the most detailed rules on how players take turns. The Bob Kildee court page sets them out.

Court 1 is the challenge court. Teams of two put their paddles in the designated paddle saddle. The winners stay on to face the next team in line, but they can hold the court for only two games in a row before two new teams take over. A challenge rotation needs at least four teams waiting. With fewer, Court 1 joins the regular rotation. Games go to 11, win by two, and end at 15 no matter what.

The other courts are first-come, first-served, with one limit that matters on a busy evening. When every court is full and people are waiting, the same four players get one game, and then all four leave the court. Waiting players put their paddles in the rack in the order they arrived, and when a court opens, the "Next Up" player moves the paddle forward and steps on.

These rules also explain why new courts matter. When the rotation fills up, each new group of four means another wait at the rack. Adding courts in a different part of town spreads players across more locations, which a longer rack at Temple Avenue can't do.

Ran Rancho brings four courts to the Springville area this fall

Ran Rancho Park has been on the books for a long time. The City of Camarillo approved the Springville Specific Plan in January 2008, and that plan is the housing development behind this five-acre park. The district's board saw design options in 2020, demolition happened in May 2023, and construction started in April 2025.

The Ran Rancho Park project page lists what's being built:

• Four pickleball courts
• Basketball courts
• Two playgrounds, one for ages 0 to 5 and one for ages 5 to 12
• Fitness equipment
• A dog park with artificial turf
• Cornhole and bocce areas
• Two small pavilions with pergolas over the benches
• A restroom building
• Two acres of open green space

The district's update from September 2026 says the project is in its final stage of construction. Sod went in the week of Aug. 31, and the district estimates about eight weeks from sod to a usable park. That points to the end of October, and the district's anticipated opening is still listed as October 2026. The general manager gave the board the same sod timeline at its Sept. 2 meeting. As of the district's Oct. 13 field conditions update, the Ran Rancho dog park was still listed as under construction and closed. Until the district announces a firm date, check that page before you go.

Ran Rancho will also make the Springville area the only part of the district with pickleball at two parks. Springville Park, on Via Zamora near Spanish Hills, already has its lit dual-use court. Players near the west end of town would have five courts at two Springville-area parks, compared with one today.

For dog owners, Ran Rancho's turf dog park would join four district dog parks that were open as of Oct. 13: Camarillo Grove Park at 6968 E. Camarillo Springs Road, Freedom Park at 275 E. Pleasant Valley Road, Mission Oaks Park at 5501 Mission Oaks Boulevard, and Springville Park.

Freedom Park's complex is the larger plan, and it's still in permits

The Freedom Park Pickleball Complex is the district's long-term answer. It would sit on the site of the old Freedom Park pool, inside a 33.9-acre community park next to Camarillo Airport. The district has owned that property since Nov. 17, 1976, when the former Oxnard Air Force Base closed. The pool was built in 1949 and closed for good in 2003.

Here's how the project has moved, according to the district's Freedom Park project page:

1. December 2021. The board chose Lauterbach & Associates to lead public input and design. Three public workshops followed in spring 2022.
2. July 2022. The board approved several layouts, knowing cost would require building in phases.
3. February 2023. Lead and asbestos cleanup was finished.
4. October 2023. The old pool was demolished.
5. August 2024. City planning review was completed.
6. April 2025. Lauterbach & Associates told the district the firm was closing permanently.
7. September 2025. The board approved Jordan & Bain Landscape Architects to continue pre-construction design.
8. Now. Building and Safety review is in its second round of permitting, and construction starts only after the required permits are issued.

The newest change is the court count. An item on the board's Oct. 7, 2026 agenda proposed cutting the complex from 16 courts to 14 dedicated pickleball courts. The reason given was utility infrastructure and access easement requirements found during final project review. Even at 14 courts, the complex would have more courts than all eight district courts in Camarillo that allow pickleball today, and more than three times Bob Kildee's four dedicated courts.

Funding is the other variable. The district has set aside $1.4 million in Quimby development funds for Phase 1 design, demolition and construction. The project page says any later phases will need money beyond that amount. The 2021 figure was the same. When the Camarillo Acorn covered the plan in December 2021, it reported a $1.4 million project cost for a concept of up to 13 courts with a restroom and a shaded gathering area. The design has changed since then, while that original budget still covers only the first phase.

Ran Rancho is the next addition, at the end of a housing plan that started in 2008. Freedom Park is the bigger expansion, and it moves forward one permit round at a time. Until Freedom Park is built, the lit courts on Temple Avenue and the paddle rack beside them stay at the center of public pickleball in Camarillo.

If you want to talk about how new parks like Ran Rancho and projects like the Freedom Park complex fit into a move within the Conejo Valley, or into an eventual sale, I'm glad to share what I'm seeing around Camarillo. Reach out to Paul Coleman, and let's connect.