Neighbors described the problem as "quick 'got to get the spot' loops." That phrase is in a City of Monterey committee packet. Drivers come down to Del Monte Beach, circle back along Sea Foam and Spray Avenues, and try again for a parking space on Tide Avenue. The proposed fix is a set of one-way streets.
The request is one of five Del Monte Beach nominations in the October 21, 2026 agenda packet of Monterey's Neighborhood and Community Improvement Program committee. Read together, the five say something about the neighborhood. For years, the improvement money that reached these streets went into getting people to the sand: boardwalks, cables, dune planting and a safer trail crossing. This year's list is about living with what that work produced. The beach is busier, the restored dunes need tending, and the boardwalk needs more trash cans.
A Program Paid for by Hotel Guests
The money behind all of this comes from visitors. Under a City Charter Amendment, at least 16% of Monterey's hotel Transient Occupancy Tax receipts go to neighborhood and community improvements. The NCIP program page dates the fund to 1985 and the formal program to 1988.
Any member of the public may nominate an eligible public improvement. Neighborhood representatives then review and rank the proposals. The highest-ranked projects that fit the available funds go to the City Council, which makes the allocation.
So in practice, a boardwalk board on Tide Avenue gets replaced because someone who walks it wrote a nomination and a neighborhood representative argued for it in a room with every other neighborhood's list on the table.
What Earlier Rounds Already Built
The most recent citywide status report is the NCIP Status Report dated April 13, 2026. It shows how much of the walk from a Del Monte Beach front door to the water has passed through this program. As of that April report, here is where the "DMB" projects stood:
- Del Monte/Casa Verde rec trail crossing. The study was first funded in fiscal year 2012. The April report put the project at $1,063,832 and "substantially complete," with punch-list items remaining. Its description says bikers "frequently enter the roadway at high speeds" at the five-lane intersection of Del Monte Avenue and Casa Verde Way. The City's project page now lists it as completed. It credits NCIP along with the federal Highway Safety Improvement Program, Measure X and Measure S. The new signal switched over on Wednesday, October 29, 2025, so Thursday, October 29, 2026, marks one year since.
- Cables along the Tide Avenue walkways. The rusted and failing cables along the walkways, dunes and beach were replaced, with work completed March 25, 2026. The project's $30,000 budget ran about $8,100 over.
- Boardwalk repair. The scope covers replacing the most damaged boards across the Del Monte Beach boardwalks and building out the end of the walkway near the West parking lot at Beach and Tide. Budget: $46,816.22. In April it was listed as in progress.
- Tide Avenue boardwalk replacement. This $125,000 project aims to give the walkway "a consistent uniform surface." It was in construction as of April, with its budget essentially spent.
- Native plant dune restoration on Beach Way. This $35,000 project is replanting open dune space north of Wide and west of Beach. Replanting was in progress in April.
- Beach Way boardwalk extension. Another $125,000 is set aside to carry the Beach Way boardwalk near Tide Avenue from its current end down to the hard sand. In April, Parks was "developing a proposal to move project forward with neighborhood." None of that money had been spent.
The City has not posted a newer citywide report, so these statuses reflect April. Some of the boardwalk work may be finished by the time you walk it this week.
This Year's List Is About Upkeep and Traffic
For the fiscal 2026-27 cycle, the City received 44 nominations. After two were merged, the committee reviewed 43 projects. Del Monte Beach filed five of them. Only Downtown, with nine, and New Monterey, with eight, filed more. Casanova-Oak Knoll matched Del Monte Beach at five, and Alta Mesa filed none.
| Nomination | What neighbors asked for | Preliminary estimate |
|---|---|---|
| DMB-01 Dune Restoration | Habitat experts to plan a dune-wide approach to invasive weeds "creeping back" into restored areas | $50,000 |
| DMB-02 Traffic Mitigation | Make Dunecrest, Spray and Sea Foam Avenues one-way, east to west | $50,000 |
| DMB-03 Driveway Repairs | Replace driveway and sidewalk sections where parked cars overhang and block the sidewalk | $300,000 |
| DMB-04 Replace Historic Tree | Replace the large eucalyptus removed at Dunecrest Avenue and Beach Way, on the exit from the neighborhood | $5,000 |
| DMB-05 Cigarette/Trash Receptacles | New or larger receptacles along the Del Monte Beach boardwalk | $5,000 |
All five together come to $410,000 in preliminary estimates. The driveway repairs account for $300,000 of that. The other four total $110,000, and each one follows from something an earlier round built or from how many people now come to use it.
The dune nomination builds directly on the Beach Way replanting still under way in April. That project put native plants back in, and this one asks for expert help keeping the weeds out across the whole dune system.
The traffic nomination opens with the plainest line in the packet: "With the increased popularity of Del Monte Beach, neighbors are seeing increased traffic and increased speeds." Making Dunecrest, Spray and Sea Foam one-way from east to west would end the loop that brings drivers back past Tide Avenue for a second try.
The receptacle request has a recent baseline. On April 25, 2026, the Surfrider Foundation's Monterey chapter held a cleanup at Tide Avenue and Beach Way, where 94 volunteers collected 162 pounds of waste. Larger cans along the boardwalk are a $5,000 request against that.
The tree is the one nomination still in doubt. According to the packet, DMB-04 had not been revised and, as presented, did not yet meet the program's criteria for a capital project.
The Neighbors Behind the Nominations
Several of these requests trace back to people who have been organized around this stretch of shoreline for decades. The Del Monte Beach Neighborhood Association was established in 1971. Its 2026 calendar included a general meeting on January 17 and a spring neighborhood cleanup on March 14, when the Police Chief visited. Add the Surfrider cleanup six weeks later, and the dunes and boardwalk at Tide and Beach Way had two organized cleanups this spring before any of this year's nominations were filed. The first nominations arrived on August 14.
Voting Night Is November 18
The committee's first review took place October 21. At that meeting, each neighborhood's representative could speak to how much support its projects have. A second review meeting was set for October 28, and the committee invites public comment in writing, in person or remotely. The revised FY2026-27 schedule lists the remaining dates:
- November 18, 2026: committee voting night
- April 6, 2027: recommendations presented to City Council
Until those dates pass, all five Del Monte Beach items are nominations, not approved projects. Any one-way signs on Sea Foam or new trash cans along the boardwalk depend first on how the committee ranks them in November and then on Council funding in the spring.
Sea Foam Avenue traffic, the weeds coming back into the Beach Way dunes and the boardwalk ending short of the sand are all things buyers notice on a first walk-through. At Truszkowski Freedman & Assoc, we follow these neighborhood decisions closely. If you own on Tide Avenue or nearby and want to know how this year's projects could shape your street, we're glad to go through it with you.
