Apartments coming to Monte Sereno?

Monte Sereno’s website notes that the tiny, tony town nestled in the West Valley is renowned for its “magnificent estates.”

Those mansions, however, may be joined in the near future by multifamily housing. The change holds the potential for serious outcry in a place where the median home price hovers above $1.5 million.

Today will mark the first meeting in a yearlong process to figure out where to zone for multifamily housing — a requirement under state law that Monte Sereno has so far avoided.

The city, which has no commercial or retail buildings, is one of the last incorporated areas in Santa Clara County not to zone for such housing.

Monte Sereno in 2002 laid out a plan to identify appropriate sites for multifamily housing, but no sites were actually identified. With the city having completed an update of its housing plan last year, this time the state will be paying close attention.

“It’s very uncommon for communities not to allow multifamily,” said Cathy Creswell, deputy director of California’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

City officials say they concluded that with state scrutiny, as well as the possibility of legal action from housing advocacy groups, they have to move ahead with new zoning rules.

“I think the handwriting’s on the wall,” said Mayor Don Perry. “They aren’t going to let up.”

Should the state find the city not in compliance with the law, it could lead to a host of legal problems, including hurting Monte Sereno’s ability to issue permits.

The 11-acre site proposed by the city manager’s office lies at the edge of the city, near the border with Saratoga along Highway 9. It forms part of a stretch of unincorporated county property surrounded by city land.

City Councilman Curtis Wright argues that the site is the best possible solution for the city, due to its location and an established hotel nearby, the La Hacienda Inn. Wright said the owners of that site, the Stanley Group, are willing to develop a housing project; Stanley Group officials were unavailable for comment.

Monte Sereno, however, will not be building on the land or requiring anyone to do so, according to Associate City Manager Erin Garner. The city’s simply required to zone a parcel for multifamily housing.

There’s some irony in the chosen site: The City Council has previously discussed annexing the unincorporated lands, but that effort died in 2009 amid resistance from some people in those areas. Now, as nonresidents of the city, those directly next to the proposed site will have no say in whether the site is chosen or how it’s developed.

“By not doing anything, we’d screw the whole city to placate people who aren’t in the city anyway,” Wright said.

Vice Mayor Lana Malloy said city residents have been reluctant for years to allow for such zoning changes.

“We probably felt that we were this little island of single-family homes in a rural area, and we wanted to keep it that way,” she said.

For James Zahradka, supervising attorney at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley’s fair housing law project, the time has come for the town to make peace with change.

“It is extremely frustrating for affordable housing advocates — especially given the huge unmet need for affordable housing here in Silicon Valley — to see that a jurisdiction has made no apparent progress to allow multifamily development in seven years,” Zahradka said.

The law compelling the change is a backbone for regional efforts to provide affordable housing. What’s unclear is what the market value of any Monte Sereno rental units actually would be.

Alex Vargas, a landscaper who works in the city, expressed skepticism that the housing would do much to bring domestic workers to town.

“I just don’t think they can afford to live in a place around here,” he said.

Contact Eric Messenger at 408-920-5719.