Council to consider proposals for Better Overland project

The Culver City Council will decide how to implement a protected bike lane as part of the Better Overland project at its meeting Monday night. The council will consider two potential paths forward that will remove a feature on the street to accommodate the new construction: one that takes out the sections of the centralized left-hand turn lane on Overland Avenue within the project’s scope between Culver Boulevard and the Ballona Creek Bridge, and another that instead replaces parking on the west side of Overland Avenue headed towards Jefferson Boulevard.

Better Overland is a Public Works Department project that aims to improve the ease and comfort of travel on Overland Avenue. The project will eventually extend past the Ballona Creek Bridge to Freshman Drive at West Los Angeles College, but the council will only vote on the potential approval of Phase I between Culver Boulevard and the Ballona Creek Bridge tonight.

Conceptual plans for Phase I were approved back in 2024, and outreach efforts since then have been fruitful. The city received almost 1,000 responses to a survey and had more than 300 participants at 12 community meetings related to the project. Taking this feedback into consideration, staff recommended adopting “Alternative B,” which maintains the centralized left-hand turn lane throughout the corridor by removing 44 parking spots on the westside of Overland Avenue.

“Given the access and circulation constraints posed by Ballona Creek and the existing roadway network,” the staff report on the item reads, “staff concur [with concerned community members] that maintaining left-turn movements is an essential design feature to support safe, orderly, and efficient traffic flow.”

While there are distinct differences between the two proposals, several universal changes apply to both. One of the most impactful of these changes is the rearrangement of traffic lanes on Overland Avenue at Culver Boulevard, where one of the two left-hand turn lanes will be replaced with a second through lane.

A right-hand turn lane will also be implemented to replace the far-right lane, which is currently used for both through traffic and right-hand turns.

Curb extenders for pedestrians at each signalized intersection in the project area are included in both proposals, and a pedestrian signal would be added in front of the Julian Dixon Library to allow pedestrian crossing from the other side of Overland Avenue.

The primary difference between the two project designs is how the protected bike lane is integrated into the street. The first choice focuses on removing the central lane used for left-hand turns in large sections along the project borders, but implementing this proposal would result in a net loss of 18 parking spots across those sections of the corridor.

While parking spots will be lost, the west side of the section between Farragut Drive and the Ballona Creek Bridge will add nine parking spots, replacing the three lost on the east side of that same section. For other areas where parking spots were removed, side streets can accommodate most of the additional potential demand, according to the plans.

Removal of parking on Overland Avenue to accommodate the project — a proposal dubbed "Alternative A" — is another avenue the council will consider at Monday night’s council meeting. While Alternative B includes removing some parking spots, the more focused approach proposed in Alternative A removes all parking spots on the west side of Overland Avenue inside the project area, resulting in the loss of 44 parking spots from the existing street.

Reconfiguration of the lanes on the opposite side of Overland Avenue has allowed this proposal to add a parking spot in between Braddock Drive and Farragut Drive on the east side, but three spaces are lost between Farragut Drive and the Ballona Creek Bridge, resulting in a net decrease of 47 parking spaces.

For the area around Grace Lutheran Church, the city will work with church staff to create new loading and handicap parking zones on Franklin Avenue and Farragut Drive, and dedicated left-hand turn lanes will help facilitate vehicle entrance and exit from the Windsor Fountains Condominium complex.

Should the council approve Alternative B, the city will also conduct a “comprehensive evaluation of parking regulations along Overland Avenue between Culver Boulevard and the Ballona Creek Bridge, as well as on intersecting side streets,” according to the staff report.

About $1.4 million from the City's Unreserved General Fund, the Mobility Improvement Fund, and the Metro Active Transportation Program through L.A.’s 2016 Measure M will fund Phase I of the Better Overland project.

If a proposal is approved tonight, construction is expected to begin in Spring or Summer 2026.