Out of Bounds : City to Tear Down Illegal Beach Volleyball Court

The neighborhood calls it the Seventh Wonder of Ventura. It’s a beach volleyball court built by residents near Pierpont Beach out of two massive pilings ripped from the Ventura County pier last year.

One weekend last summer, a group of Pierpont residents rolled the 1,200-pound pilings out of the surf to build the court. With ropes and muscle and determination, they planted their 14-foot lengths deep in the sand to stand as upright supports for the net.

“It was like the Egyptians building the pyramids,” Jeff Dalton said.

City and state officials, however, are not impressed and vow to tear the court down Tuesday nearly a year after it was erected. The city now calls it an illegal structure.

“This volleyball court is a trespass on state park property and city of Ventura property,” read four notices stapled to the two poles holding up the net, warning residents the structure is coming down Tuesday.

“It’s truly a liability issue,” said Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures, who can see the court from her dining room window and has watched a few volleyball games during the summer.

“It’s in my backyard and I love it,” she said. “But unfortunately what appears to be a totally innocent sport turns out to be a liability issue.”

The volleyball court sits at the foot of Pittsfield Lane, and Measures said that stretch of beach is unprepared to handle a volleyball court. She said the lack of restrooms in the area is the primary reason a volleyball court is out of place at the site.

Other temporary courts have been erected from time to time on Ventura County beaches. And every year or so, officials sweep the beaches clear of these nets, said Jerry Revard, Ventura parks supervisor.

Revard said Pierpont residents often complain about the illegal volleyball courts attracting large crowds to the neighborhood. “This is not the first time we have seen this type of situation,” he said.

And indeed, volleyball players from the neighborhood said this will be the third time in the past five or six years their handy work has been destroyed. They complain that city and state workers are slow in emptying trash cans in the area and wonder why officials have suddenly concerned themselves with the volleyball court.

“We all use it, and nobody that I know complains,” Dean Nelson said as about a dozen residents gathered at the court Friday to talk about the city’s plan.

“I’d rather see my 15-year-old son out here than watching TV or holed up somewhere doing drugs,” said Karla Rolff.

Furthermore, they claim, the pilings sat on the beach for two months after the January 1995 storm clobbered the Ventura Pier. The pier was badly damaged again in December.

“I can never understand why they take the time to do this,” said Marty Harder, who has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years and is a frequent volleyball player. “Because I’ll tell you what, come summer, the guys will be playing volleyball out here.”