Lafayette council adopts new fee schedule for city sports fields, ending preferential Little League lease

The Lafayette City Council on Oct. 14 adopted Resolution 2025‑49 to update hourly fees and formalize use categories for the city’s multi‑sport fields, including Buckeye Fields and Lafayette Community Park.

City staff and the Parks, Trails and Recreation (PTR) Commission recommended the change after noting the current fee schedule had not been updated since 2011 and the lease that previously set Buckeye’s true cost has expired. Jonathan Katayanagi, the city’s parks, trails and recreation director, told the council that although the listed baseball fee remained at $8 per hour, Buckeye’s actual 2024 cost—when calculated across hours and expenses—worked out to about $24 per hour. Katayanagi said the proposed schedule ramps rates from the 2011 base toward a $20‑per‑hour benchmark over four years to catch up with market comparators while limiting immediate impacts to…