Efforts to restore sensitive dune habitat on a Ventura Harbor beach will force popular sand volleyball courts used by colleges, high schools and others to relocate.
The now nine-court sand complex at Harbor Cove Beach is set to move sometime after Labor Day to a site a few hundred feet away on the same beach. Leaders of the California Coastal Commission said the move is a “win-win” that will protect the environment while also keeping volleyball on the beach.
But officials with nonprofit organizations and coaches of school sports teams worry volleyball will lose in the new agreement.
Though harbor and Coastal Commission leaders say the new site will allow an ample amount of space, volleyballers fear projections are exaggerated, meaning schools and tournaments won’t have enough courts. They said some may no longer be able to host games. Others may consider new digs if they can find them.
The predicament explains why Anthony Powers wonders about the 9-year-old tournament that will fill the beach on April 18 with firefighters spiking volleyballs into the sand. Called Hotshot Up, the event raises money for the families of firefighters who have died or have been injured in the line of duty or from work-related illnesses.
Powers, a firefighter and president of the tournament’s foundation, isn’t sure what the move will mean to his tournament next year. He thinks it could be a death knell.
“It’s terrible,” he said. “I’d have to find a new place to do it. It’s one of those things that I don’t know if I have the energy to stand it up again.”
‘Perfect setting’
The 12-year-old courts at the far end of the harbor, near the Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center, are open to the public and have become a favored site for women and girl volleyballers. They are used by beach teams from Ventura College, Santa Clara High School in Oxnard, St. Bonaventure High School in Ventura, youth groups and others.
The players bump and dig on a wind-protected beach that offers ample parking and ocean views.
“It’s really a perfect setting to play beach volleyball,” said Jimmy Walker, Ventura College athletic director. He thinks the relocation could mean the college would no longer have enough courts to host matches. That could affect the school’s ability to recruit women beach volleyballers.
“They’re taking away an opportunity for women athletes,” he said, contending that the mandate by the Coastal Commission to restore the habitat seems unnecessary. “No one’s asking for more dunes there so I don’t understand what they’re doing.”
Flattened dunes
The controversy exploded more than a year ago when the Ventura Port District was applying for a permit the California Coastal Commission said was needed to manage the area’s sand and keep it from spilling over fences and piling in parking lots.
Commission staff said they discovered during the permitting process the volleyball courts had been built on land that once held dunes and had been flattened. The habitat is protected by state law and can’t house volleyball courts or other structures, they said.
The port district refuted the allegations and asserted the dunes at the harbor were manmade and had diminished naturally. They fought to keep the sand courts where they are. Leaders of volleyball teams and organizations flooded the Coastal Commission with pleas to let the courts be, including a petition signed by 2,500 people.
At a May 2025 meeting in Half Moon Bay, the Coastal Commission decided to conditionally approve the harbor’s sand management plan and to put the fate of the volleyball courts on hold, allowing play to continue while looking for a way to resolve the issue.
Two outrigger canoe clubs also stored their canoes and equipment in large containers on the environmentally sensitive land. The containers have since been moved to an adjacent site in a port district plan approved by the city of Ventura.
Discussions on the volleyball courts between commission staff and the port district continued. The district formed a committee to look at possible new sites. The committee concluded what volleyball leaders and district leaders had said all along. The best site is the current one.
But the committee also said that a less desirable but still viable alternative would be to move the courts to the south on the same beach off the protected land.
Momentum for the alternative site grew. Port district leaders said the writing on the wall was clear. Coastal Commission staff was not going to allow the volleyball courts to stay where they are.
Fighting the issue, they said, would likely involve an expensive legal battle. It would keep the port district from getting the final sand management plan approval that is desperately needed, said Brian Pendleton, port district general manager. The district was told three years ago it needed Coastal Commission approval to do work the district previously did on its own including clearing and redistributing sand.
“Without that permit we’ve been hamstrung to do the things that we’ve done year in and year out,” Pendleton said.
In February, the port district’s board voted 3-1 to relocate the courts to the smaller site. The port district will also restore the dunes that once occupied the volleyball area.
Volleyball supporters protested the decision, contending the Coastal Commission pushed the district into submission and threatened to make the district pay to restore more dune land if it didn’t agree to move the courts.
“It was just a classic shakedown,” said Brad Lyans who manages the Harbor Cove courts for the Los Angeles Volleyball Academy. He also coaches the Ventura College women’s beach volleyball team that practices and plays at the site.
‘Unique and sensitive habitat’
Commission leaders said the criticism is fueled by misinformation. They said they’re working to conserve and restore habitat that is protected by the California Coastal Act.
“Dunes are one of the most unique and sensitive habitats on our coast,” said Steve Hudson, Ventura-based district director for the Coastal Commision. He said commission staff worked continuously with the port district to find the “win-win” that allows volleyball play to continue.
When volleyball advocates protested the planned move at a March Coastal Commission meeting in Ventura, Hudson noted the new site is only hundreds of feet away from the current site. He asserted the new site will be able to accommodate as many as eight courts, compared to the current nine courts.
“The goal has been not to remove those courts or reduce them,” he said. “There’s been no direction by our staff to reduce the courts in any manner. We have worked to find a balanced compromise.”
Pendleton said the port district’s goal was to obtain the sand management permits and meet Coastal Commission requirements while also “retaining volleyball, canoe clubs and use of the beaches by the general public.”
Crunching numbers
The biggest dispute is math. Coastal Commission leaders repeatedly say the new site will hold nearly as many courts as the old one.
Port district leaders said the smaller space will allow for six permanent courts and two temporary courts that could be added for tournaments.
Volleyball advocates don’t believe it. They said it’s likely the new space will allow for four permanent courts, noting that’s what they were told initially by a harbor leader.
“There’s no way eight courts fit over there,” Lyans said, asserting that four permanent courts would mean Ventura College could still hold practices but could no longer host games or tournaments. Every match would have to be an away game.
“We can’t use just four courts. It’s not enough for the college. It’s not enough for the college and the community,” he said.
The agreement for the move becomes official when the Coastal Commission gives final approval to the sand management plan. That’s expected in weeks. The move for the courts is planned for the fall.
Volleyball coaches and tournament organizers said they hope the new site provides at least six permanent courts but fear it will not. Some said the consequences could spell doom for their programs if the area is too small to host high school or college matches.
“We probably wouldn’t have a team,” said Gina Reyes, coach for the Santa Clara High School team, noting there would be nowhere else for her team to go if it couldn’t play home games at Harbor Cove.
The Hotshot Up tournament moved to the Harbor Cove courts in 2020 and has raised $140,000 for families of firefighters. This year, the event will generate funds for the family of Tommy Minadeo, a firefighter with the Ventura County Fire Department who died of job-related cancer on March 7, 2025. He was 32.
The changes won’t affect this year’s event. But tournament leader Powers said the event draws 500 people, often more, and in most years requires all nine courts.
Powers also worries moving the site will infringe on areas of Harbor Cove used by other beachgoers. He said the district and the Coastal Commission may be pushing too many things into one small area.
“They’re going to try to jam the elephant into the Prius,” he said.
Tom Kisken covers health care and other news for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tom.kisken@vcstar.com.
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This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: ‘Perfect’ volleyball courts in Ventura Harbor must move. Here’s why
Reporting by Tom Kisken, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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