At the Culver City Council meeting on May 27, 2025, the council unanimously approved a budget amendment appropriating $240,000 of the Mobility Improvement fund toward the plans, specifications, and estimates design of the La Ballona Creek Bike Path Extension Project.
The feasibility study notes that $3.5 million of the construction costs would be for improvements within Culver City.
Funding has not been identified for construction, which is estimated at this point in time to cost $24.7 million.
“I don’t want to jeopardize [our plans for the ] Fox Hills [bike path] or Overland [bike path.]” Mayor Dan O’Brien spoke during the discussion on the dais. “I’m good with fulfilling the original request.”
The path, which winds in and out of the erratic Culver City borders, is located in both Culver City and Los Angeles. It is currently one of the most used east-west bike routes in the area, with thousands of bicyclists accessing it on a regular basis. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation documented a rate of approximately 400 users per hour along Ballona Creek Bike Path on a weekend day.
Created in 1970 and open to bikers in 1980, the path currently begins at the Pacific Ocean and ends at Syd Kronenthal Park. The path was originally planned to end near the intersection of Cochran Avenue and Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles, but that did not happen. Those two miles would connect the path with several other neighborhoods, and give cyclists a safer way to bike in and out of the mid-city area.
As part of City of Los Angeles’ Active Transport Program grant application, requesting $6.4 million for preparation of plans, specifications, and estimates for the project, with a local match requirement of $1.6 million, Culver City City Council authorized a local match contribution of $240,000 if the project was selected for funding.
While the project wasn’t selected as part of the ATP grant program, it was referred to the Southern California Association of Governments. SCAG selected the Ballona Creek Bike Path Extension Project for partial funding in the amount of $5,090,000, leaving a shortfall of $1,310,000. Culver City declined the City of Los Angeles’ request to contribute an additional $196,500 to the shortfall in proportion to its original local match commitment.
The city’s refusal to add the additional funds will impact the City of Los Angeles’ budget for design on the bike path extension.
Thomas Check, a senior traffic engineer with Public Works Department, noted that “About $200,000 less out of a $6 million dollar budget is not going to kill the project – [the City of Los Angeles] will just have less to spend on it.”
Judith Martin-Straw