R u in good enough terms to share your plans with neighbor? You said you wanna block view & sounds. Some people might think it is a standoffish move, even if you don’t mean it to be. I would rehearse a decisive and polite answer in the event neighbor asks your reasoning for the project. Stammering weakens your case, so mentally rehearse, really. Also, be thinking of a Plan B in case neighbor has a problem with your project. And also think about what is more important if things go south: Privacy or good neighbor relations.

as to project itself, it’s kinda hard for me to visualize just from your words. A picture of something like what you have in mind would help.

Its a rather complicated problem I am trying to solve. Even if it is expensive, it is cheaper than moving (and you never know who the new neighbors will be, and what hell they will unwittingly unleash upon your life). The sight and sound I am trying to stop cannot be blocked by plantings alone. It is screaming, a basketball court and a stadium light.

I left this out because I didn't want people's sympathy affecting their opinion of what was reasonable for me to do.

I would love to look at a lovely plants in a 3 tier planter than a fence as a neighbor as long as the planter is maintained. I think it is a nice mix of hardscape and landscape. I would check your areas regulations on how far back from a property line a fence should be and place the planter accordingly to be safe.

A basketball court and stadium lighting is so obnoxious I think you are completely rational to consider a drastic solution. I can think of better ones than yours. A useful structure would block the sight and sound better, and also add value to the property. Need a nice shed? greenhouse? garage? guest house? Or how about a good looking camper/school bus/trailer that can function as such? When you say a stone wall, I'm picturing the cages of rocks that are now used as retaining walls along driveways. The association alone makes them unappealing. It would also be expensive to get rid of.

Actually solid dirt and rock walls are the best at blocking sound. If you look up the calculations of how they block highway sound it is with berms and solid walls. They block more sound than fences. Tho sound does travel in the air. One of my clients was 4 blocks away from a kids school and could still hear them practicing marching band so they put in a waterfeature..helps.

Call it beautification..have a designer do a render of it and show it to neighbor. If it is more beautiful and you say you feel that the flat area is too normal and you would like to look at something nice you could do that.

Why on earth would you feel it necessary to obfuscate the reason? No one has to pretend to be happy to listen to basketball.... or look at stadium lights.

Thanks everyone. In general the neighbors are pretty decent. I expect they don't understand why a child-free couple doesn't want to listen to children screaming and playing basketball. There are many more aggressive solutions, but they would then likely result in them passive aggressively torturing me with behavior that is well within their rights. My neighborhood is protected against noise after 10PM, and I could call the police, but there is nothing stopping them from having people over to play basketball from 7AM-10PM every day.

I'd prefer to keep our relationship as it is, and just not have to deal with being surprised by screaming basketball matches every holiday and random evenings.

The sports court is right on the property line. So close that I could probably complain and have them need to destroy part of it and move it back. The nature of sound, which I have done a lot of research on - is the closer you can put the blockade to the source of the noise, the more effective it is.

I don't use that part of my yard anyway. Somehow because of their court being right there, I feel like I am on their property even when I am not. Even if they never used the sports court, I still feel some separation is a good idea (and better for resale value).

Let's make sure this is very clear - plants are very ineffective in blocking sound. You need a solid surface to deflect sound waves.....they will travel right through the plants. Even several layers of dense hedging. A tall masonry wall is best - what they call sound walls and what are constructed along the interstates. Even a wooden fence will be more effective at muffling or deflecting sound than just some plants.

Some tall evergreens should effectively screen or shade out the stadium lighting but they will do next to nothing for the sound problems.

@gardengal48 - I'm not certain you read my post, it is basically a plan to build a huge 3 tier retaining wall garden and landscape it so it looks nice. The dimensions would be 100 feet long, 12 feet wide and 10 feet tall at the top of the highest tier.

The cost for that would be prohibitive, not to mention that it would be unlikely to get engineering approval on a residential property. And how exactly will you water and tend to whatever is in the top tier?

If you can get permission, why not just do a single concrete wall? You can plant on either side of it if you wish to soften the views.

All good questions.

I can't see, in my area, why I need any kind of approval for a garden landscape feature. There are rules for fences, not landscaping. The design includes leaving enough space to tend to the plants. It's pacific northwest, it rains like 200 days a year, but I suppose I could add a drip line.

We wouldn't need any kind of permit to do that on our property either.

Well, you’re the one that posted here, apparently unsure of your project. Different people have shared their thoughts with info you’ve shared.

if neighbors are decent as you say, can’t a friendly conversation help matters? It might be all it takes to curb the kids. Invite the adults over while kids are carousing, so they can hear for themselves.

if court is on far end of property and you don’t frequent it, are noises traveling that efficiently to be so bothersome? I don’t get the impression that your houses are one on top of the other, but rather comfortably spaced, so a little confusing.

There’s gotta be something you can do b4 spending oodles of $$$, unless your goal is artistic expression rather than noise control.

good luck and I hope you find the peace and comfort you deserve.

To be sure, the devil will be in the details so impossible, really, to answer straightaway. But it does not sound to me like a practical solution. As pointed out, it would be massively expensive (to do it well or right.) It if were my own property or I was a real estate agent putting in my .02 cents, I'd be totally against it. First off, a retaining wall structure is considerably more complex/expensive than a freestanding wall. A freestanding masonry wall is quite good at sound reduction. At what level is the bulk of the sound generated? I doubt that it needs to be 10' high to take care of that. Secondly, Screening of light and/or unpleasant views does not need a masonry wall, but plants. A combination of a reasonable height, freestanding masonry wall, and plantings, is enough to take care care of the problems with drastically less cost and without building a bulky, space hogging and probably ultimately unwanted mass of materials. Truly, I say this without ANY SYMPATHY AT ALL for your circumstances, but only with sympathy for efficient problem solving.

The walls are collectively over 4 ft tall so chances are your design will be interpreted as a wall, and not a very good one, at that. It is not the visual that matters, it is the physics and engineering. The building code will matter. A simple masonry wall with tall plants to block the light is a superior solution, as others have already pointed out. If the children are already in high school, you may not have many years to bear this misfortune.

I do not think there will be any harm in calmly explaining to your neighbor in kindly terms that the noise and light is invasive to your privacy and peaceful existence, and ask if there is any way they could reduce those two things (noise and light).

I respect your opinion and thank you for your unbiased answer.

If the primary goal is noise reduction I think a wall makes more sense. Landscape in front of the wall.

A thought from experience. If you live near a University with an engineering Dept. and make queries and push the right buttons and locate the right professor who includes sound abatement in his studies and he finds your problem interesting he might introduce it as a class project. This is a 'dilly' of a question that may stir some interest.