SOUTH OGDEN, Utah — A South Ogden resident is in hot water, ordered to reimburse the city for demolition costs after building a pickleball court without the city's permission.
Manny Cyphers has lived in South Ogden for most of his life, and 20 years ago, he moved into the Fox Chase subdivision and maintained the land beyond his property line because he saw what he believed was neglect by officials.
"Every summer the weeds would get this tall, then go away in the winter, and every summer it would come back,” Cypers said. “So that’s what spurred the cleaning it up and neighbors started chipping in.”
Five years ago, Cyphers decided to do more than just tidy up and instead built a pickleball court.
“I should have looked into it a little bit more, because this was on the master plan, before this subdivision was ever built, this whole area was supposed to be a Fox Chase HOA park,” he said.
Eventually, city officials caught wind of the project and, according to South Ogden city manager Matthew Dixon, were surprised to find the pickleball court.
"It came to the city's attention back in September of 2025 that there was a pickleball court constructed on city property,” said Dixon.
Dixon said after months of weighing options such as letting the neighborhood lease the property from the city or making other accommodations, they decided to remove the court entirely due to public infrastructure needs.
"In the event we have to get access to those wetlands, the pickleball court is right in the way and we would have to roll heavy equipment right over the pickleball court,” said Dixon.
To Cypher's disappointment.
"We have a beautiful park and a great pickleball court and I don’t know what you replace that with that would even come close to how it serves and provides something tangible and fun and it isn’t an eyesore on top of all of that,” he said.
Cyphers admitted that while he is a general contractor, he did not know while would need a permit to build the court. He also offered to remove the court himself if he had to, but the city insisted on hiring an outside company to demolish the court and have Cyphers reimburse the city.
"We intended it to be, you know, for the benefit and pleasure of everybody, and now it’s just really turned into a nightmare,” he said.
Dixon admitted that while the pickleball court did provide value to the city, access to the wetlands for heavy infrastructure would be more valuable in the end.
