Tiny Del Rey Oaks quietly pushes ahead toward some ambitious goals.

On July 23 at Del Rey Oaks City Hall, Mayor Scott Donaldson delivered the city’s first-ever “state of the city” address to a standing-room-only crowd, highlighting the progress the city is making on various fronts.

And while Del Rey Oaks is a sleepy little city, there are some substantive updates. In late June, its City Council voted to put Measure R on the ballot, which would require a majority vote to pass, and would raise the city’s transient-occupancy tax from 10 percent to 12 percent, with the option for the council to later raise it to 14 percent. The city has no hotels, but it has 25 licensed short-term rentals. City Manager John Guertin says that such rentals are the fourth-leading source of revenue for the city, with $190,000 projected for the current fiscal year.

Also in late June, the city entered into an exclusive right to negotiate agreement with developer City Ventures to assess the viability of developing the city’s vacant land on the former Fort Ord. This comes after, in February 2023, the city publicly noticed the availability of that land for sale, and while it also received interest from Big Sur Land Trust and the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District, the city was obligated to negotiate with City Ventures pursuant to the state Surplus Land Act, as they were the only party interested in building housing.

The agreement, which went into effect in July, lasts for six months with the potential for two three-month extensions.

The city has also begun planning efforts, both environmental and engineering, to realign the intersection of South Boundary Road and Gen. Jim Moore Boulevard, as well as widen and resurface South Boundary while also adding underground utilities, critical to any future development there.

Guertin says the $8 million the city inherited from the defunct Fort Ord Reuse Authority for that purpose will be insufficient, and that the city is exploring grant opportunities to close the gap.