WASHINGTON — Anyone who has driven past the Lincoln Memorial has likely seen the 10 beach volleyball courts along Rock Creek Parkway.
A group of local volleyball players that has voluntarily maintained and cared for the sandpit courts for 35 years and nurtured an active casual volleyball community says the National Park Service has quietly instituted a permit and play process that puts an end to decades of free play on a national park.
“We were shocked to find out the National Park Service had put out new rules basically making all 10 courts subject to permits and fees, in order to play,” says John Gay, who has played pickup games on the West Potomac Park volleyball courts.
In years past, four of the courts were available weekdays on a first come, first served basis, while six were reserved for league play. On weekends, all 10 courts were open to the public.
Gay says free play on the courts has run smoothly for years.
“You just show up at the courts and are able to find people you know, or you can challenge the winners on any court,” says Gay. “Sometimes you can arrange ahead of time to meet people down there, but the beauty is you don’t need to do that, you can just walk on.”
Previously, the permitting was done by D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation.
Under the new National Park Service process, there is nonrefundable fee of $30 for a two-hour period of use.
“The new reservation fees will pay for regular maintenance, new sand, new nets, and trash pickup,” says Mike Litterst, spokesman with the Park Service, for the National Mall and Memorial Parks.
“We will also bring in monitors for the permits,” says Litterst. “Under the old rules there were often abuses with the open courts being monopolized by organized groups or leagues.”
The group of casual players says the National Park Service’s change of rules was done with little interest in public comment, through a nine-day posting on the park service’s website during the winter. There was no additional publicity about the change, and Gay says the casual players learned of the change after the comment period was over.
“They must have only heard from the leagues,” says Gay.
Litterst says the Park Service is reopening the comment period.
“It’s been reopened until April 27,” says Litterst.
A group of casual players has started a petition and created a Facebook page to spread the word about the change of policy, because most of the desirable weekday afternoon courts have already been reserved through the entire summer.
“A quick survey of the reservations website shows the 6-8 p.m. weekday time slot is by far the most popular,” says Litterst. “Most of the courts are already reserved in early May extending through October, though there are still some weekday after work slots available.”
The organized players don’t feel that is fair.
“We want the Park Service to suspend and withdraw the rules they put out,” says Gay. “If there are issues they want to talk about on usage, or money for upkeep of the courts, let’s talk about it with everybody that’s involved.”
Daughter of courts designer irked
Not only current players are angry with the Park Service move — the daughter of the man who designed the courts near the Lincoln Memorial is weighing in.
“My father, Roger, is the gentleman who conceived the idea of free beach volleyball for the city of Washington,” says Bonnie Morris, a professor at Georgetown University.
Morris tells WTOP her father grew up in the Los Angeles area, but when he moved to Washington he realized there were few places to play volleyball.
“He liked to play recreationally on his lunch hour — he worked for the Department of Energy,” says Morris. “He pitched an idea to the Park Service to utilize this empty space near the Lincoln Memorial to build a couple of volleyball courts.”
Morris says her father designed the courts, poured the sand, bought the nets, and for the next 15 years, until his retirement, he oversaw the open play on the courts.
“My mom would bring brownies for all the regular players,” recalls Morris.
She says maintenance was and has always been done by volunteers, who were willing to keep up the volleyball courts they played on.
“It was all pickup, drop-in,” says Morris. “The whole idea was to have a free, open play space for people from all walks of life.”
Morris says she was shocked to hear that the Park Service had instituted a permit and pay procedure in what had been her father’s labor of love.
“Now the people who have cleaned it up and kept it going on a volunteer basis are being priced out of their own community,” says Morris.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect comments from the National Park Service.
