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CC - ACTION ITEM: (1) Approval of Conceptual Plans for Sepulveda Connects; and (2) Adoption of a Resolution Finding that the Project is Categorically and Statutorily Exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and Certifying that the Project will be Completed Using a Skilled and Trained Workforce.
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Meeting Date: November 9, 2026
Contact Person/Dept.: Seth Contreras/Transportation Department
Phone Number: (310) 253-6547
Fiscal Impact: Yes [] No [X] General Fund: Yes [] No [X]
Attachments: Yes [X] No []
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Meetings and Agendas - City Council (11/04/2026)
Department Approval: Nick Zornes, Chief Transportation Officer (10/19/2026) _____________________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the City Council (1) approve the conceptual plans for Sepulveda Connects; and (2) adopt a resolution finding that the Project is categorically and statutorily exempt from CEQA and certifying that the project will be completed by a skilled and trained workforce.
BACKGROUND
Sepulveda Connects is a project to create a balanced, accessible, safe, and sustainable transportation environment by installing bus lanes, bike lanes, enhanced pedestrian crossings, and other safety improvements along 2.3 miles of Sepulveda Boulevard. The project implements the goals of the City’s adopted 2045 General Plan to make the City more accessible by making it easier and more reliable to ride transit, bike, walk, and drive on the City’s major arterial corridors.
Sepulveda Blvd is utilized by residents, and visitors more than any other street in the City. Due to its existing configuration, it also poses some of the greatest barriers for people walking, cycling, and accessing transit. It is Culver City’s busiest transit corridor, with Line 6 and Rapid 6 buses running on average every 12-15 minutes, and carries more than 6,700 riders every weekday between LAX and UCLA. It is also a key corridor for vehicle traffic to, from, and through Culver City. Street-facing businesses generate significant pedestrian traffic and demand for parking and loading. The demands of these different uses lead to challenges; buses see poor on-time performance due to traffic and non-recurring incidences, with over 20% of trips running late, and 525 crashes have been reported on Sepulveda in the last six years.
The project began on April 24, 2023, when the City Council directed the Transportation Department to proceed with the design and implementation of a transit priority project on Sepulveda Boulevard. Since then, staff have conducted extensive data collection, public outreach and engagement, and conceptual designs, all described in more detail below. Staff have also secured outside funding for the design and construction of the project, which is estimated to be between $3.5-4.5 million. Final project cost will be determined when final plans are released for construction bids. Staff will return to award a construction contract, which will include all funding identified to construct the project.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Sepulveda Connects (the Project) begins at the northern City border of Sepulveda Blvd. and Venice Blvd. and follows Sepulveda down to the intersection of Sepulveda Blvd. and Slauson Ave. An overview map of the Project is provided in Attachment A.
Attachment B includes conceptual plans for the Project. After closely evaluating three proposed (3) design alternatives, along with substantial feedback from the community, staff recommends a “Balanced” Transit Priority design with the following mobility improvements taken from all three concepts:
• Install 1.8 miles of bus-only lanes on Sepulveda Blvd. in the direction where it is most needed by converting on-street parking on one side of the road and maintaining parking on the opposite side.
• Construct 1.2 miles of protected bike lanes on Sepulveda Blvd. between Culver Blvd. and Ballona Creek, connecting two (2) popular off-street bike paths.
• Repave 1 mile of Sepulveda Blvd. between Venice Blvd. and Franklin Ave.
• Maintain minimum two (2) general travel lanes in both directions, as well as the center turn lane to allow continued access into business driveways, throughout the entire studied corridor.
• Improve pedestrian crossing enhancements at the most-used intersections, including high-visibility crosswalks, curb extensions, accessible pedestrian push-buttons, and no-right-on-red restrictions.
• Reconfigure complex intersections at Sepulveda Blvd./Machado Rd. and Sepulveda Blvd./Culver Blvd to increase safety and legibility.
• Signal improvements including video detection systems on intersections between Venice Blvd. and Lucerne Ave.
• Further study traffic interventions in Sunkist Park, including but not limited to either cul-de-sacs, median traffic diverters, road striping with bollards, and/or signage to help address current and future cut-through traffic. The final Traffic Intervention will be implemented along with Sepulveda Connects.
• Further evaluation of a short segment of Jefferson Blvd. bus-only lane in the southbound direction between Ballona Lane and Sepulveda Blvd. This section was proposed and designed as part of the Westside Cities Council of Government (WSCCOG) Westside Bus Connection Project.
The northern portion of Sepulveda Blvd. (from Venice Blvd. to Franklin Ave.) is on the City’s annual resurfacing plan. The goal is to resurface the street as part of the implementation of Sepulveda Connects to reduce construction costs, minimize closures to road users, and save on administrative overhead.
During the public outreach phase, staff heard from residents of Sunkist Park that certain streets experienced disproportionate cut-through traffic from Sepulveda Boulevard on several local streets. Modeling indicated that the existing cut-through traffic in Sunkist Park could increase if Sepulveda Connects was implemented. No other neighborhoods were found to be at risk of increased cut-through traffic because of the Project. Staff have presented several potential solutions to the Sunkist Park community to best address these concerns, and have received feedback on how to best meet neighborhood needs. Staff will continue to refine a traffic intervention proposal so implementation happens simultaneously with Sepulveda Connects.
PLANNING PROCESS
Staff used three (3) main sources to develop and refine the initial concepts for the Project: existing City policy documents, multimodal travel data, and traffic modeling.
1. City Policy Documents
The City’s guiding documents outline a vision for Sepulveda Blvd. that seeks to build on its strengths, addresses existing challenges, and advances the mobility and sustainability goals of the 2045 General Plan. The General Plan, which had extensive community outreach, designates Sepulveda Blvd. as a Transit Priority Corridor, while the Bike and Pedestrian Action Plan envisions the addition of bike lanes along much of the corridor.
2. Travel Data
Throughout 2024 and 2025, staff collected extensive data on how people use the Sepulveda corridor. Data collected includes:
• Vehicle volumes (average daily traffic)
• Vehicle turning movements
• Vehicle speed and travel time
• Parking occupancy and inventory
• Transit speed and reliability
• Transit ridership
• Bicycle volume
• Pedestrian volume
3. Traffic Modeling
The project team developed two (2) traffic models to evaluate the impacts of the concepts to vehicles and transit.
• The first model used Synchro, an industry-standard traffic engineering tool that precisely simulates roads, traffic signals, and intersections at a small scale. The Synchro model generated vehicle and transit travel time estimates for the project concepts, as well as informing adjustments to the design concepts.
• The second model used Replica, a region-scale traffic simulation, to help evaluate how changes to Sepulveda would affect other streets. The project team used the results of the Replica model to identify areas of concern for cut-through traffic, combined with other datapoints such as traffic counts, fields observations and community feedback
Using the above information, the following findings were made:
• Conflicting Demands: Sepulveda Blvd. simultaneously serves as a major regional arterial for vehicles, a transit priority corridor with high ridership, and a local, community-serving street for residents, visitors, and employees. This multi-functional role creates competing demands for space and function.
• Transit Delays and Variability: Southbound bus travel times are notably inconsistent, particularly near the I-405 freeway access ramps and the Culver City Transit Center, where access and egress challenges create significant delays and variability in service. This harms riders on Culver CityBus’s busiest corridor, which carries more than 6,700 riders per day, and harms the agency, as resources and operators are used on Sepulveda Blvd. that could be used to provide better service elsewhere on the system.
• Disconnected Active Transportation Network: Bicycle usage on Sepulveda Blvd. is low, largely due to gaps in continuous infrastructure. Facilities are fragmented, and riders must navigate high-stress environments to reach their destinations. Bicycle ridership is high on high-quality connecting facilities such as the Ballona Creek Bike Path, suggesting that improving bike connections on Sepulveda Blvd. would lead to significantly increased bike ridership. However, traffic volumes and complex geometry on Sepulveda Blvd. would make it very difficult to build out the full facilities envisioned by the Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan (BPAP) to an acceptable level of comfort.
• Pedestrian Safety Concerns: Pedestrian activity is challenging due to long crossing distances, long distances between signalized crosswalks, and relatively high numbers of vehicle-pedestrian collisions (a total of 50 reported collisions between 2019-2025 resulting in serious injuries or fatalities). However, with popular destinations on and near the corridor, including businesses, schools, and parks, better pedestrian infrastructure would likely cause more local, short-distance trips that are currently made by car, to be made on foot instead.
• Potential Neighborhood Spillover: Future design changes could shift vehicle cut-through traffic onto adjacent residential side streets in the Sunkist Park neighborhood, which already experiences moderate cut-through traffic volumes. No other neighborhoods were found to be at risk of increased cut-through traffic because of the project.
• Parking: There are approximately 379 on-street parking spaces on Sepulveda Blvd. And parking varies along the corridor, with the southern end having more surface lots and strip malls, and as you head north, there are more frontage businesses that rely more on curbside and alley parking. Most on-street parking along Sepulveda Blvd. experiences relatively low parking utilization (less than 50%) across the typical weekday. Either because drivers prefer to avoid paying the metered parking, or there are on-site surface lots available at no charge. However, a few locations experience higher parking utilization during certain times of day. These locations occur near the intersections of Washington Blvd., Washington Pl., and Culver Blvd. Parking capacity was largely maintained at street sections where there was the most demand.
• Regional Significance: The Westside Cities Council of Governments (WSCCOG) included Sepulveda Blvd. as a priority corridor for transit improvements in its 2020 mobility study, and in August 2025, the WSCCOG board approved a contract to design a network of transit lanes throughout the Westside region on Sepulveda Blvd., Jefferson Blvd., La Cienega Blvd., and Santa Monica Blvd. The goal of this project is to implement bus lanes on each corridor before the 2028 Olympics.
Accommodating the many uses on Sepulveda Blvd., both present and future, require careful consideration in design and intensive public engagement. To facilitate better decision-making during the design process, the City Council approved a set of Guiding Principles for the project on October 27, 2025. Guiding principles have helped staff and the public navigate the tradeoffs that emerged given the realities of limited street space and a fixed budget. The following is a summary of the adopted Guiding Principles:
1. Policy Guidance: Advance General Plan goals and policies through the development and delivery of Sepulveda Connects. Incorporate elements of the Complete Streets Design Standards when it is financially feasible to do so.
2. Transform transit on Sepulveda: Transit is the core of Sepulveda Connects, as the city’s busiest and most-delayed transit corridor. Use a data-driven approach to identify infrastructure needs: build bus lanes where transit delay is high or will be high in the future; consider other priorities for the street in places where bus speeds are already high.
3. Meet the intent of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan to create a complete cycling network: Build all-ages-and-abilities bike infrastructure on or adjacent to Sepulveda Blvd. that achieves the best results in closing gaps in the existing bike network and providing high-comfort, low-stress facilities that serve all community members.
4. Ensure that all modes (driving, transit, cycling, and walking) experience predictable and reliable travel times on Sepulveda: Balance Sepulveda’s role as a community-serving corridor with its role as a regional arterial.
5. Minimize cut-through traffic: Work with local communities to identify suitable locations and treatments for traffic calming.
6. Create better pedestrian crossings: Improve neighborhood connectivity through targeted pedestrian improvements.
7. Enhance public space: Use investments to improve the quality of public spaces on Sepulveda. Enhance neighborhood walkability and access to corridor businesses.
8. Maintain business access: Use parking occupancy data to inform the design process and provide parking solutions where they are needed most. Consider options to mitigate on-street parking removal. Update parking regulations on and around Sepulveda Blvd. to holistically address business parking and loading needs.
9. Prioritize installing permanent infrastructure: Use quick-build materials only in limited circumstances, where needed to meet budget constraints.
The full Guiding Principles are included as Attachment C.
Based on the Guiding Principles above, staff created three (3) initial concept designs that struck a different balance between principles. These concepts were published online in February 2026, beginning the public outreach phase of the project. The initial concepts can be viewed on the Project website, culvercity.gov/sepulvedaconnects <https://culvercity.gov/sepulvedaconnects>.
PUBLIC OUTREACH
To gather as much public input as possible on the Project and design concepts, staff marketed the Project across several channels, including mass emails, social media feeds, mailed flyers, and physical signage, and opened different avenues for public feedback, as detailed below.
Staff hosted nine (9) public meetings for the Project, shown in Table 1 below. At each meeting, attendees were able to either view the project concepts, speak directly to city staff, ask questions, and/or provide feedback through structured activities and general comments.
Staff also had an “open-door” approach to public engagement. Throughout the engagement period, staff held fifty (50) individual meetings with business owners and community groups on and around the Sepulveda Blvd. corridor.
For members of the public unable to attend meetings, the project team developed an interactive, web-based “virtual open house,” which could be completed at any time, and which concluded with comment forms. The Project also had a webpage and an email address where staff would receive comments and questions. Staff also presented the project to the City’s Mobility Subcommittee and the Disability Advisory Committee.
Through all channels, the Project team received more than 1,000 comments on the project. The top three themes included: Traffic, road safety and parking access. Businesses and corridor users expressed a desire for Sepulveda Blvd. to be safer and more accessible, while maintaining practical access for customers, employees, deliveries, and vehicles. The stores were very focused on how changes affect day-to-day access to their businesses.
DISCUSSION
The Project team has used public comments received, data collection and traffic modeling, and the Project’s Guiding Principles to develop a recommended concept for consideration by the City Council. The recommended concept, a “Balanced” Transit Priority design, incorporates elements taken from all three alternatives and is described below; it is also available in Attachment B. Bus-only lanes on Sepulveda Blvd. are to be installed in the direction where it is most needed by converting on-street parking on one side of the road and maintaining parking on the opposite side. At all points along the Sepulveda Blvd. corridor, the recommended concept includes at least a center turn lane and two vehicle traffic lanes in each direction.
Segment 1: Venice Blvd. to Washington Blvd.
This segment sees high transit delay in both directions, along with the 405 freeway on-/off-ramps. It is also the narrowest part of the Sepulveda Blvd. corridor, meaning that the Project team had to make careful use of the limited street space in developing the recommended concept.
The recommended concept for Segment 1 consists of a bus-only lane in the northbound direction. While transit delay is high in both directions, data shows that bus-only lanes would be more effective in the northbound direction. To accommodate the bus-only lane, parking is proposed to be removed on the East side of the street. Parking would be maintained on the West side of the street.
Segment 2: Washington Blvd. to Culver Blvd.
Bus riders in this segment experience more delay than at any other location in the City. Parking usage is also high in this segment on both sides of the street.
This segment adds a bus lane in the northbound direction, to help maintain consistency with Segment 1, and removes parking on the East side of the street. Parking would be retained on the West side of the street.
Segment 3: Culver Blvd. to Ballona Creek
Bus delay in this segment is low due to the relatively lighter traffic volumes and long spacing between traffic signals as compared to previous segments. This segment is bounded by two (2) heavily-used, off-street bike paths on Culver Blvd. and Ballona Creek., and is home to many popular destinations, such as the Culver-Palms Family YMCA, and street-facing businesses.
Because of this, staff recommend implementing protected bike lanes in this segment to address Guiding Principle #3 (meet the intent of the BPAP to create a complete cycling network). Bike lanes, protected from traffic by concrete barriers, and other infrastructure including bus bulbs and curb extensions, would enhance the bicycle and pedestrian experience of this segment and contribute to the neighborhood appeal of the streetscape, while also reducing excess speeding and providing access to the neighborhoods and destinations near this segment. No car travel lanes would be removed, but an essential North-South bicycle connection would be established in a part of the regional network where there are few.
Building protected bike lanes in this segment would require removing parking on the East side of the street. Parking on the West side of the street would be retained, which includes 60 curbside parking spaces. While many businesses on the East side of the street face some parking constraints, the majority of the businesses on the West side of the street have fewer customer parking options due to shallow lots and rely more heavily on curbside parking.
Segment 4: Ballona Creek to Sawtelle Blvd.
Bus delay in this segment is low in the northbound direction and moderate in the southbound direction. Accordingly, the recommended concept includes a southbound bus lane beginning prior to the intersection with Machado Rd.
Staff also heard significant feedback regarding the pedestrian experience at the intersection of Sepulveda Blvd. and Machado Rd. The angle at which the two (2) streets meet results in extremely long crossing distances and vehicles turning at high speeds. Accordingly, staff are recommending a curb extension at the NE corner of Sepulveda Blvd. and Machado Rd, replacing one of the two existing right-turn lanes. This will shorten the crossing distance and cause vehicles to turn onto Sepulveda at a sharper angle, lowering turning speeds. Based on traffic modeling, the Project team found that if this curb extension is paired with signal enhancements, including a right-turn arrow, to allow more time for right-turning cars, the removal of one right-turn lane would not result in any traffic impacts for right-turning vehicles.
Segment 5: Sawtelle Blvd. to Slauson Ave.
This segment carries more car traffic than any other part of the Project corridor, but also sees high transit delay, particularly in the Southbound direction. Parking demand is split between the West side, which sees very low parking street parking use, and the East side, which has high street parking use. This segment has three (3) general-purpose lanes in the northbound direction, and two (2) general-purpose lanes in the southbound direction. A third, peak-only southbound travel lane was added in 2024.
The recommended option for this segment features a southbound bus-only lane replacing the peak-hour lane and parking on the West side of the street. Parking would be retained on the East side. Staff are also recommending installing a transit-only left turn lane at the southbound approach to Sepulveda Blvd. and Slauson Ave. This would convert the existing dual left turn lanes into a single left turn lane for vehicles. This left turn is used by southbound buses entering the Culver City Transit Center and is a major contributor to delay.
This segment also divides the communities of Sunkist Park and Blanco Park, both of which have elementary schools. The elementary schools have significant crossover in enrollment due to the lottery attendance system at El Marino Elementary, meaning that many students who live in Sunkist Park attend El Rincon Elementary in Blanco Park and vice versa. Staff heard from residents of both neighborhoods about the poor and unsafe pedestrian experience for students crossing at the intersection of Sepulveda Blvd. and Sawtelle Blvd.
Consequently, staff are recommending implementing no-right-on-red restrictions at the Sawtelle Blvd. intersection as well as hardening the centerlines on all four approaches to moderate vehicle speeds and reduce conflicts between turning cars and pedestrians. Both treatments are proven countermeasures that have been found to increase pedestrian safety.
Short Segment: Jefferson Blvd. from Sepulveda Blvd. to Ballona Ln.
WSCCOG Westside Bus Connection Project examined and produced draft designs for a small segment of Jefferson Blvd. between Sepulveda Blvd. and Ballona Ln. This was included in WSCCOG outreach for the Westside Bus Connection Project, including a workshop held at the Senior Center in Spring of this year. The segment is only in the Southbound direction, does not reduce car travel lanes, does not eliminate turn lanes from general use, and only removes four under-utilized 30-minute parking spaces along the West side of Jefferson Blvd. adjacent to a currently empty lot.
Sunkist Park Traffic Interventions
Project staff hosted four community events, including open houses and design meetings with Sunkist Park residents on proposed strategies to reduce cut-through traffic on Culver Park Dr., Segrell Way, and the Segrell Alleyway. These strategies had advantages, disadvantages, and varying levels of community support. These include the following:
• Berryman Ave. traffic diverters: these interventions would segment North-South travel on Culver Park Dr., Segrell Way, and the Segrell Alleyway by requiring all car traffic to make right turns at their intersection with Berryman Ave This would significantly reduce cut-through traffic, but staff heard concerns about segmenting the neighborhood as well as impeding emergency response and spillover effects.
• Cul-de-sacs on Culver Park Dr. and Segrell Way: these would prevent all vehicle traffic to and from Slauson Ave Staff heard from the community at the October 7th design meeting that it would reduce traffic volume and speeds on these streets, but would impede emergency services, sanitation services, reduce connectivity to other parts of the neighborhood, and create spillover effects, including school traffic.
• Median striping and bollards on Slauson: this would prevent Southbound cut-through traffic (which is larger in volume than Northbound) from turning left onto Slauson Ave. and increase the time calculation for that route. Staff heard this would help Southbound traffic, but not be effective for all trips.
• Signage: signage would make certain turns and routes not legal maneuvers to reduce cut-through traffic. This would be a less intensive intervention, and staff heard from the community that this would not affect emergency response or segment the community, but there were concerns over effectiveness and enforcement.
Staff will continue to evaluate community feedback, collect more data, and finalize a solution that looks to include one or multiple of the above interventions. Sunkist Park traffic intervention strategies will be packaged with the final Sepulveda Connects design before construction and will be implemented simultaneously.
Concept Evaluation
The recommended concept compares well against the project Guiding Principles. Traffic modeling estimates that buses would save 5-6 minutes round-trip as a result of the bus lanes and other transit priority treatments. This equates to 20,000 hours per year saved for our passengers, and an anticipated $800,000 - $1 million per year in operating costs saved for Culver CityBus. These cost savings would be used to improve service on Sepulveda Blvd. or provide additional service elsewhere in the City. If implemented alongside the WSCCOG Westside Bus Connection Project, buses could save up to 15 minutes in total on the 60-85-minute trip between UCLA and LAX. Which potentially means that one bus could be shifted away from this route and reallocated to another route.
Next Steps
Should the City Council provide direction to move forward with the recommended concept of a “Balanced” Transit Priority design, staff from the Transportation and Public Works Departments will begin the engineering design process. Once the final design is complete, staff will publish a notice inviting bids for the construction of the project and will return to City Council for consideration of the award of the contract. Construction is anticipated to start between late 2027 and early 2028.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW (CEQA)
The Project qualifies for statutory exemption from CEQA, pursuant to PRC Section 21080.25, as it (1) includes pedestrian and bicycle facilities that improve safety, access, or mobility, including new facilities, within the public right of way and (2) is a transit prioritization project including the designation and conversion of general purpose lanes to high-occupancy vehicle lanes or bus-only lanes, or highway shoulders to part-time transit lanes, for use either during peak congestion hours or all day on highways with existing public transit service or where a public transit agency will be implementing public transit service as identified in a short range transit plan. The Project also meets the criteria required to assert the exemption under PRC Section 21080.25, as it (1) does not induce single-occupancy vehicle trips, add additional highway lanes, widen highways, add physical infrastructure or striping to highways except for minor modifications needed for the efficient and safe movement of transit vehicles, bicycles, or high-occupancy vehicles, or add any auxiliary lanes, (2) does not require demolition of affordable housing units, and (3) will be carried out by a skilled and trained workforce. There are other requirements for projects greater than $50,00,000 and $100,000,000 which do not apply in this case because the Project does not exceed that threshold.
Additionally, the Project qualifies for a Class 1 - Existing Facilities Categorical Exemption, pursuant to the CEQA Guidelines (14 CCR § 15301), as it consists of improvements on existing highways and streets that do not create additional automobile lanes.
FISCAL ANALYSIS
Staff estimates no direct fiscal impact pending an audit of the transportation fund. Staff will confirm when returning to Council for approval of the awarded construction bid.
ATTACHMENTS
1. 2026-11-09_ATT A_Sepulveda Connects Project Corridor Overview
2. 2026-11-09_ATT B Sepulveda Connects Recommended Concept Plan
3. 2026-11-09_ATT C Sepulveda Connects Project Guiding Principles
4. 2026-11-09_ATT D Resolution on CEQA Exemptions and Workforce Certification
recommended action
MOTION(S)
That the City Council:
1. Approve the Conceptual Plans for the Project; and
2. Adopt a resolution finding that the Project is categorically and statutorily exempt from CEQA and certifying that the project will be completed by a skilled and trained workforce.
