Fight To Share Little League Field With Girls' Softball Escalates: What To Know For Tonight's Council Meeting

LAMORINDA, CA — A hot-button issue involving a Little League playing field and gender equity for girls' softball is on the Lafayette City Council agenda tonight.

The Lafayette City Council will hear arguments over a plan to modify a baseball field so that girls would have a place to play softball.

The issue hinges on modifications to an infield at the Buckeye Fields complex designed to comply with the California gender-equity law.

Parks, Trails, and Recreation commissioners approved the plan in August. But, following threats of a lawsuit detailed in a five-page letter on behalf of the Lafayette Little League (with a point-by-point rebuttal of the city's plan from the league's attorney, Michael Betz), Mayor Susan Candell put the item on the Oct. 27 City Council meeting agenda.

Currently, Buckeye Fields has two grass infields with permanent baseball mounds, making them unsuitable for regulation-level girls' softball play and in violation of the Fair Play in Community Sports Act.

The Lafayette Parks, Trails and Recreation Commission in August approved plans to install a dirt mix infield estimated to cost between $12,000-$20,000, within the city's budget allocated for a refitting. City staff considered the option to be the most expedient way to make the space comply with the required regulations.

Three of Lafayette's four natural grass athletic fields include permanent baseball mounds and
grass infields, making them unusable for regulation softball play, according to a report by the director of the town's Parks, Trails, and Recreation department, Jonathan Katayanagi.

According to the report, only one — Chaney Field — can be configured for softball, and that field lacks parity in amenities.

It is also the one leased to Lafayette Little League under a long-standing agreement that granted exclusive in-season use. Buckeye Fields also includes the most robust amenities.

Katayanagi wrote that the dirt mix infield modifications approved by commissioners would create a regulation surface for girls' softball, address concerns about inequitable access, and still leave the field available for baseball, which can use it with a portable pitching mound.

In addition, several commissioners said that the presence of grass infields limited girls' access, and that removing the grass would provide greater equity regardless of the compliance mandate.
Staff recommends that the council uphold the commission's decision by approving the recommendation approved in August and directing the work to be completed ahead of the spring 2026 baseball-softball season.

Lafayette Little League President Colby Powell argued in a letter that the decision about the field should be postponed for a larger study and suggested that moving ahead with the plan would be unfair because there are relatively few girls playing softball to warrant the plan.

In addition, the "public funds — perhaps those potentially budgeted for modifications to Chaney Field — should be invested in an athletic field facility that is perfectly suited for improvement as a softball complex" rather than a hybrid softball-baseball field.

More information about how to participate in the Oct. 27 meeting at 6 p.m. is available online.