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Culver City celebrates groundbreaking of Bill Botts Project

A small ceremony at Bill Botts Field #3 held Monday morning commemorated the beginning of a much-needed rehabilitation of baseball fields at Culver City Park

Officials and staff connected to Culver City came together at Bill Botts Field #3 on Monday, July 6, to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Bill Botts Fields Reconstruction Project. From left to right are Assistant City Manager Adam Troy; City Manager Odis Jones; Culver City Councilmember Albert Vera; Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Commission Chair Crystal Alexander; California State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas; Culver City Mayor Freddy Puza; Culver City Councilmember Dan O’Brien; California State Assemblymember Isaac Bryan; Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Department Director Tomás Herrera‑Mishler; and Senior Assistant City Manager Lea Erickson. || Photo by Christian May-Suzuki

A much-anticipated renovation to one of Culver City’s biggest parks finally kicked off this week.

Culver City celebrated the groundbreaking of the Bill Botts Fields Reconstruction Project at a small ceremony held on one of the four baseball fields at the top of Culver City Park on Monday morning. The project will bring much-needed revitalization to the baseball fields at the peak of Culver City Park, known as Bill Botts Fields #2, #3, and #4, with the rubble from the previously demolished Field #4 serving as the backdrop for Monday’s small ceremony.

The effort is part of a renewed investment in Culver City Parks, coinciding with the adoption of the City’s Parks Plan and increased liquidity from bonds issued by the newly founded Culver City Public Finance Authority. Among the uses for these bond funds highlighted by City Manager Odis Jones during budget discussions for the 2026-27 Fiscal Year, which started July 1, was $2.5 million for repairs to Bill Botts Field.

A renewed investment in Bill Botts Fields has been one of Jones’ and many community members' top priorities since the former began his work in Culver City last year. Jones spoke highly of the efforts by California State Assemblymember Isaac Bryan and State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas to ensure Culver City and the other cities in their respective districts are not left behind in Sacramento, and both were in attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony.

One of Bryan’s most recent contributions to the California State Assembly is authoring AB 946, which would direct several state conservation initiatives to place an emphasis on investing in historically underserved urban communities and encourage state agencies to work with communities to restore degraded land. He said that Bill Botts Fields and what it represents serve as a shining example of how policy like AB 946 can improve communities.

“This was a landfill, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be repurposed for the community if it is maintained and remediated properly,” Bryan said at Monday's ceremony. “It just takes investments and people who care.”

The future of the heavily worn Bill Botts Fields was called into question because of its place on top of the unstable foundation a landfill provides and the financial investment it would require because of that. However, the hills, holes, and other natural obstacles stemming from years of use led the rehabilitation of the field to “priorities number 1, 2, and 3” for park investment in Culver City.

In the background of the ceremony was a pile of rubble in an excavated square lot, the last remnants of what was once Bill Botts Field #4. A rendering of the field improvements for Bill Botts Fields #2-4 was also presented, showing the three fields remaining configured similarly to their condition prior to Field #4's demolition.

Culver City Mayor Freddy Puza recognized the gravity of continuing the effort to improve Bill Botts Fields as “a new day for Culver City Parks” and said the investment in the city’s largest baseball venue was long overdue. Jones went even further, arguing that the focus on bolstering sports and entertainment infrastructure in Culver City was part of a larger “renaissance” that Jones said he believed the city was preparing to go through.

“They’ve hosted little league games, adult leagues, practices, tournaments, and countless memories,” Puza said of the Bill Botts Fields. “Now, it’s our turn to invest back into them with safer modernized fields that will serve our communities for decades to come.”

Crystal Alexander, the Chair of Culver City’s Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Commission who has been an outspoken advocate of increased park spending, also spoke at Monday’s ceremony. She pointed out that, amongst the many political disagreements community members have about other issues, one the community is universally invested in is the health of parks and public spaces.

“These are the places where differences fade into the background, conversations begin, and community grows stronger,” Alexander said of these spaces.

Smallwood-Cuevas remarked that the efforts to improve the public spaces of Culver City will represent the legacy of local decisionmakers after their time in positions of political power has passed.

“When we are long gone from here, this park will be what is left behind,” Smallwood-Cuevas said Monday, “and it will reflect our values and who we care about.”

Construction on the three Bill Botts Fields are expected to be completed before the end of December 2026, with the field opening in January 2027. While details about the field and park closures have yet to be established by the contractor, the city hopes to maintain access to amenities such as the trails and parking lots adjacent to the fields.

There are expected to be times where parking lots will be closed to accommodate for construction equipment, and the community will be given advance notice of these closures. Clear signage will also be installed during these periods to ensure park users know what to expect and how to navigate the park.