Plumstead Township
Plumstead has a long history of not allowing lights, two township supervisors noted in August 2026, when a school asked about lighting its athletic fields. So plan your court around daylight, and keep every hour of it playable.
Local courts
Plumstead Township is a long rectangle, running from Doylestown Township in the south to the Delaware River in the northeast, across from Kingwood Township, New Jersey. It covers about 27 square miles just northeast of Doylestown Borough, in the eastern part of central Bucks County. Its villages include Plumsteadville, Gardenville and Danboro, plus Point Pleasant, shared with Tinicum, and Pipersville, shared with Bedminster. Newer developments have brought families in, and the township has preserved nearly 3,000 acres through conservation easements. Ace Court Surfacing takes on tennis and pickleball court work across all of it, and calls go to Bill Ferguson, based in Bucks County.
If your court has no lights, three things decide how much of the day it gives you. The lines have to read in low sun. The ITF already asks for every line in one color that clearly contrasts with the court, and late in the day, that contrast is what you play by. Water has to clear quickly after rain, because a puddle that lingers into the evening takes that day’s play with it. And the color has to stand up to open sky. So check all three on your own court: worn lines, low spots that hold water, and color that rubs off chalky on a hand.
Local conditions
Without lights, a court’s day ends at dusk, so an afternoon lost to standing water doesn’t come back. By the American Sports Builders Association’s definition, a birdbath is any spot where water deeper than 1/16 inch, about a nickel’s thickness, still stands after an hour of drying in 70°F sun. Birdbaths delay play after rain, it says, and can stain or peel the surface. Patch mix can level them.
Plumstead counts some 2,800 acres of preserved farmland, and a court out in open country can take sun from morning to evening. UV rays break down the binder that holds a coating’s pigment in place, so the color fades and turns chalky. When new color is due, one coating maker advises applying it in the morning, while the pavement is cooler.
Resurfacing, crack filling and new lines work on pavement you already have and move no soil. A new pad is different. Plumstead’s zoning page notes that the Bucks County Conservation District requires a plan submission for any earth disturbance of 1,000 square feet or more. USA Pickleball’s minimum playing surface for one court, 30 by 60 feet, covers 1,800 square feet. That plan comes before paving; lines come last.
Start here
Unlit courts finish their games in low sun, when a gray, worn line is hardest to call. New lines are usually laid out from the net, taped and edge-primed, then painted in one color that clearly contrasts with the court.
A typical repair floods the court, chalks every spot still holding water, levels those with acrylic patch mix and fills the cracks with acrylic crack filler, so a rainy Plumstead morning can cost less of the playing day.
When open sun has left the color pale and chalky but the base is sound, resurfacing typically washes the court back to well-bonded coating and rebuilds it: patches, resurfacer, sand-textured color coats to the maker’s spec and fresh lines.
Ask the township before you count on them. In August 2026, a school in the township asked the supervisors about lighting its athletic fields, acknowledging that outdoor sports lighting isn’t permitted on its property. Two supervisors pointed to the township’s long history of not allowing lights, and the board was wary of going against a long-standing ordinance. Without lights, plan around daylight: lines that contrast in low sun, and low spots leveled before they hold water into the evening.
It depends on which game comes first. USTA guidance for blended lines calls for textured paint 1.5 inches wide, a shade lighter within the court’s own color family, stopping 3 inches short of the tennis lines. USA Pickleball’s rulebook asks for 2-inch lines in one color that clearly contrasts with the court. Blended lines stay out of a tennis player’s way, but by design they contrast less with the court, which matters more as the light fades. If pickleball is the evening game at your house, lean toward contrast.
Not in the township’s parks, which list no pickleball courts. Next door, Doylestown Township has six lighted pickleball courts outside its Community Recreation Center at Central Park, first come, first served unless a township program or reserved event has them. Solebury Township has two at Laurel Park, behind its municipal building. If the game sticks, blended lines can fit up to two courts on your tennis court, one each side of the net. Call Bill at 215-251-2984.