A San Jose landowner wants to build affordable teacher housing on her property, but there is a catch: The zoning will not allow it and city officials are not inclined to change it.

The property owner, Sarah Chaffin, said the existing retail location at 2119 Lincoln Ave. (now occupied by a hair salon) is blighted. By going vertical to two or three stories, she said she could provide eight to 16 teacher apartments in a mixed-use project that keeps the salon or a similarly sized business in place, the Mercury News reports.

With affordable housing in such short supply in the Bay Area, such apartments could serve teachers who usually do not qualify for low-income housing but do not make the wages needed to afford market-rate apartments in Silicon Valley. Chaffin suggests a program where teachers pay $2K/month, with $1K going toward rent and the remaining $1K put into a savings account for a down payment on a house.

Housing has historically been in greater supply than job-supporting office or retail in San Jose, which means building apartments on land not currently zoned for residential could create an even greater disparity, city leaders said. There also is concern a later owner could build market-rate housing on the spot if the zoning is changed to include residential.