Posted on October 5, 2026
By Cassandra Mischak
A stretch of Venice Beach looks much different today than it did decades ago.
City officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers celebrated the completion of the latest project to restore sand lost to erosion and storms.
“I can remember when I was a kid on the Esplanade South,” said City of Venice Mayor, Nick Pachota. “The water actually came up to the middle of the road.”
The City of Venice started renourishing its beach in 1995, returning to add sand again in 2005, 2015, and now 2026.
“It’s really special to be able to come back 11 years later,” Venice City Manager James Clinch said.
Clinch and his daughter Clara were in the 2015 beach renourishment ribbon cutting photograph.
More than a decade later, they participated again.
“It’s a generational project here,” Clinch added. “This is a project that our children and our children’s children will get to enjoy.”
This latest project restored roughly 3.2 miles of shoreline, from just south of the Venice Inlet to just south of the Venice Fishing Pier.
It replaces sand lost to years of erosion and coastal storms since the last renourishment.
Crews also extended five stormwater outfalls to improve drainage, and they did this while still keeping the environment in mind.
“We ultimately relocated 524 nests,” said Kathryn Gentile, Public Relations Coordinator at Mote Marine Laboratory. “It was very successful. Those nests created over 50,000 eggs, so those are generations of sea turtles to come.”
For the people who live here and the thousands who visit it means more than extra room to enjoy the beach.
“This is our paradise,” Mayor Pachota said. “A lot of folks get to enjoy this every single day and by having this project done, that’s what that allows us to do.”
