A group of weekend warriors floated a proposal on Tuesday night to add new beach volleyball courts in Hermosa Beach, only to have the idea spiked by Strand homeowners.
It was a heated debate about what to do with Hermosa’s most prized resource, its deep and soft sand that is considered among the best surfaces in the world for beach volleyball.
A group representing 103 beach volleyball players argued that there is a shortage of available courts on busy summer weekends and asked the Parks and Recreation Commission to consider a proposal to add as many as 20 permanent courts, and then make a recommendation to the City Council.
Their hopes were put on hold after the staunch opposition of about 20 Strand homeowners, who took to the podium to voice wide-ranging concerns that included how some beach volleyball players urinate publicly and how the city could be liable if an errant volleyball from a new court were to hit a passerby.
The commission was mostly swayed by arguments made by Strand homeowners that there are many volleyball courts — 11 by some estimates — that are in various states of disrepair and could be fixed-up in lieu of adding new courts.
The commissioners eventually decided to delay a decision on new courts until a subcommittee evaluates whether the problem could be solved by refurbishing unused courts, instead of adding new ones.
“If all we’re talking about is courts in disrepair, we need to determine how many, which ones and what needs to be done,” said Commissioner Robert Rosenfeld. “Those are courts we can bring online.”
Dave Fulton, who organized the group in favor of more courts, said there are nowhere near 11 unmaintained courts, and that the number is closer to two. He said the other courts only appear derelict because the people who maintain them take down the nets when they’re done playing.
Most of Hermosa’s courts – 48 of the 71 – are maintained by individuals or groups of residents. Fulton and his group would similarly take on the expenses of equipping the new courts and maintaining them, should they ever get approved.
Fulton’s plan is to offer courts to recreational players that are being squeezed by tournaments. Youth tournaments have grown particularly quickly in recent years as a showcase for high-school students to get noticed for college beach volleyball scholarships. The city calendar shows just three weekends without some kind of volleyball tournament in the next four months.
Tournaments are held on the 23 city-maintained courts nearest the pier on the north and south side – popular spots for recreational players due to the proximity of restaurants, bars and parking.
With tournaments moving in, weekend warriors said they’re forced to look for other courts up and down the Strand. But some of those outlying courts are localized and aren’t hospitable to newcomers. (Every court in Hermosa is technically a challenge court, meaning a new group can challenge the winner of the previous game).
The commission tried to set aside more space for recreational players in a previous meeting by asking tournament producers to leave six courts open on the north side of the pier, or put-up six temporary courts on the south side of the pier. But producers said the temporary courts are a waste since residents don’t use them. What’s more, the policy is seen as somewhat unfriendly to bigger tournaments that might need 16 courts north of the pier to accommodate a large field of players.
“This six court thing is a stopgap until we have a solution to the problem,” Rosenfeld said.
Meanwhile, Strand homeowners countered that Hermosa’s courts are by-and-large not nearly as busy as some proponents of the new courts have said. Some homeowners produced printouts of surveillance camera footage taken from their beachfront properties showing empty courts all around. Others said that even if the courts are crowded at certain peak times, it doesn’t mean more should be created.
“Saying you can’t find a court on a beautiful Saturday morning is like me telling you on Saturday night during Spring Break that all the bars are filled, so we need more bars in Hermosa Beach,” one Strand homeowner said. “It makes no sense at all.”
Others voiced concerns about allocating too much space for volleyball at the expense of swing sets for kids, for example, or open space that gives beachgoers a feeling of seclusion or a better view of the water.
“Where does one find a natural setting to play in the waves, build a sandcastle and detach from day-to-day life?” asked Bonnie Cohn, a Strand resident. “We need more spaces like this, not less.”
Towards the end of the meeting, the commission considered seven of the 20 courts proposed by Fulton’s group. Of those, members of the commission said they would be “relatively ok” with or “wouldn’t have a huge problem” with three sites – west of an existing court that is just south of 2nd Street, west of a court that is just north of 27th Street and west of an existing court just north of 31st Street. The idea would be to stack courts widthwise to use Hermosa’s wide beach rather than add new courts where none currently exist.
After the commission looks into how many unmaintained courts can be brought back into use, it will again take up the issue at its next meeting in two months – a long time to wait for some residents who were hoping to have new courts for this summer.
“It’s frustrating,” said Ray Dussault, a Hermosa resident who supports new courts. “It’s so easy to throw some random statement out there about courts in disrepair, and it gets derailed for two months.”
