"The most modest request in the world." That's how Council Member Ron Smith described what a group of surfers asked Venice City Council for on Sept. 22, according to YourSun. They didn't ask for a rebuilt jetty or a new park. They asked for a legal way to walk from the South Jetty down to the sand.
Ten days later, WWSB reported, a ribbon-cutting at the Venice Beach Pavilion was set to mark the end of a federally funded project that put new sand along that same stretch of shoreline. The beach between the jetty and South Brohard now has new sand along its length. At its two ends, the South Jetty is fenced off and Caspersen's road is gone, so Caspersen is reachable only on foot or by bike. What each end is waiting on is a decision by another agency.
The middle took about three months
The Venice Shore Protection Project 2026 was run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Weeks Marine, Inc. was the contractor, and the construction contract cost $27,495,000, all of it federal money. Construction began in June 2026. The project restored about 3.2 miles of shoreline from south of Venice Inlet to south of the Venice Fishing Pier, replacing sand lost since the last renourishment in 2015. On the City of Venice project page, the affected beaches run from the Humphris Park South Jetty to South Brohard Park, including Venice Beach and Service Club Park.
Dredging and sand placement ended Aug. 16. Weeks Marine reported placing nearly 620,000 cubic yards of sand, all of it dredged from an offshore borrow area about 11 nautical miles southwest of the project site, off Englewood.
The ribbon-cutting didn't mean every crew had left. In its Sept. 30 update, the city said outfall pipe extensions were finished at the Aldea Mar condo, the Golden Beach condo and the Coast Guard station. Work at the Venice Beach outfall and the Venice Sands condo outfall was expected to wrap up by mid-October, and sand tilling and rock remediation were expected to continue across the project area through late October. Brohard Paw Park has absorbed most of the disruption. Its beach access was closed for weeks in August during nearby construction, and closed again for a single day on Oct. 7 for tilling.
Fossil hunting carried on through all of it. In late September, WWSB profiled people still finding shark teeth on Venice Beach by working through dark shell beds and coarse sediment in the surf.
Sea turtle nesting season ends Oct. 31, the city notes. It's the reason the contractor couldn't pull up the last sand pipes until nearby nests had hatched.
The South Jetty is fourth in a line of steps
The city's South Jetty page is blunt. Humphris Park and the South Jetty walkway are closed because of severe damage from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and the city says not to visit because conditions are unsafe.
What holds up the rebuild is the order of the work. The Army Corps owns both the north and south bulkheads and jetties, and the city owns the park on top of them. Here is how the steps line up, based on the city and YourSun's reporting:
- The Corps finishes its major maintenance report, due in November 2026, which will include an estimate of the total repair cost.
- The scope gets set. The work being considered has four parts: the seawalls at the South and North jetties, plus the jetty extensions on each side of Venice Inlet.
- The South Jetty seawall goes first. City Manager James Clinch has said the city was assured of that.
- Then Humphris Park can be rebuilt. That piece, the area locals know as the parking lot, is the city's responsibility.
That order is why council chose not to make temporary repairs to the park. YourSun reported that staff warned a permit could take years, and the work could cost millions only for the Corps to require the city to remove it before reconstruction.
Funding requests are already lined up behind the report. The city says it has the full support of the West Coast Inland Navigation District and U.S. Rep. Greg Steube's office for a $15 million appropriation request for the South Jetty. Separately, the city's draft 2027 state legislative priorities, sent to council in an Oct. 1 memo, ask for $1 million toward an estimated $4.3 million Humphris Park reconstruction that would follow the Corps' bulkhead and revetment repairs. Both are requests. Neither has been awarded.
Why a footpath is harder than it sounds
The surfers' request runs into a property line. YourSun reported that the president of Jetty Villas, the 49-unit condo association just east of the jetty, told council the association's property extends to the boulders on the Gulf side, with an easement for Corps maintenance. The association said it wants the jetty repaired and is "open to ideas" for beach access, but it has liability concerns.
Clinch said talks have assumed the city would designate a walkway, maintain it and accept liability for it. He called the association "great to work with" and noted that a path from the park area to "wet sand" has been in use for 75 years.
Timing matters to the surfers. Jay Springer told council the South Jetty is "the place to be" when winter swells arrive, and retired Air Force meteorologist Joshua Ule called it the "second-best wave on the Gulf Coast." Chris Johnson, who owned the Jetty Jack's concession stand before the 2024 storms destroyed it, told council that a path would also let beach walkers who run out of sand heading north reach the Tarpon Center Drive sidewalk for an easier walk back.
According to the official minutes, the 7–0 motion went further than a footpath. It directed staff to research and bring back solutions for pedestrian access to the South Jetty and Humphris Park, and to add the South Jetty to the city's 2027 state and federal priority lists. Those staff options weren't on the published Oct. 13 council agenda. Mayor Nick Pachota acknowledged that parking would still be a problem, adding, "as long as a surfer can use an Uber to get his surfboard to the beach, I'm happy."
Caspersen is waiting on a bigger question
At the south end, the holdup is a matter of choosing a design, not waiting on a repair order. Sarasota County's Caspersen Beach Park page says the Harbor Drive access washed out during the 2024 storm season. Restrooms, vehicle parking and the playground are closed until repairs are made. The park itself is open to people on foot or bike, entering from South Brohard Park or from the Venetian Waterway Park Trail at the City of Venice Festival Grounds. Hours are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The road may never come back where it was. In earlier YourSun reporting, county parks director Nicole Rissler said there was no timetable for replacing South Harbor Drive, and wouldn't be one until the county decides where the road should go, or whether to rebuild it at all. She said rebuilding on the same alignment may be unlikely, because state approval is uncertain and FEMA funding usually depends on reducing the risk of future losses. FEMA won't pay for a temporary fix.
The options she described in that report:
- A new alignment around Red Lake, which would cross city property, including Lake Venice Golf Club
- A long bridge, which she said would be very expensive
- No vehicle access at all, with ferry service mentioned as one idea
Rissler called it a "multiyear" project. The county's page today still describes the same walk-in, bike-in arrangement.
Three stretches of beach, two different public owners
A new parks agreement adds one more layer. It took effect Oct. 1 and replaced the 2011 deal between the City of Venice and Sarasota County. Under it, the county keeps running the parks it considers regional: Venice Beach, Brohard Park, Marina Park and Boat Ramp, and Pinebrook Park. The city takes back the Venice Community Center, Legacy Park, Higel Marine Park, Chauncy Howard Park, the west side of Venetian Waterway Park, Venice Myakka River Park and Hecksher Park, YourSun reported. The agreement runs 10 years with two automatic five-year renewals.
Put that next to the beach and each closed end has its own chain of responsibility. Humphris Park is the city's to rebuild, but only after the Corps repairs the jetty under it. Caspersen is a county park whose road the county is rethinking. The newly sanded beach between them includes Venice Beach and Brohard, which stay with the county.
Getting to each end this fall
- South Jetty and Humphris Park: Closed. The city says not to visit.
- Caspersen Beach: Walk or bike in from South Brohard Park or the Venetian Waterway Park Trail at the Festival Grounds. There's no parking, and restrooms and the playground are closed.
- Between them: Open. The last two outfall extensions were expected to finish by mid-October, with tilling and rock remediation expected to wrap up by late October.
- Questions about the renourishment: The city lists Stormwater Engineering Manager Steve Berens, PE, at 941-882-7413.
The next date on the calendar is the Corps report in November, which will put a cost estimate on the jetty repairs. The city is already planning for the park and has funding requests drafted, but rebuilding Humphris Park has to wait until the Corps repairs the structure underneath it.
If you're weighing a home near the South Jetty or close to Harbor Drive, the November report and the county's decision on Caspersen's road both affect how you'd get to the water from there. Vincent Lamaida and the SRQ Coastal Living team follow these Venice updates closely and are glad to talk through what they mean for your part of the coast. Schedule a Complimentary Coastal Consultation.
