Historic or just old? A housing project in Monterey hinges on the answer.

Usually, Monterey’s history is an asset, something to highlight, but in some cases, it’s complicated. History is part of what’s holding up a 42-unit affordable housing project on a 0.5-acre city-owned site adjacent to the Vasquez Adobe and behind Monterey’s City Hall.

The project, proposed by MidPen Housing, was conditionally approved by the Monterey City Council in 2022, but it’s been a challenge to inch ahead because of the dilapidated buildings it would demolish.

The houses slated for demolition date back to the 1880s, though looking at them, you’d never know it – they look like they could have been built in the mid-20th century. Regardless, they appear in bad shape, and no people live inside them – some are used to store junk from the city that should perhaps be put into an archive, landfilled, or taken to Last Chance Mercantile.

But the potential historic nature of those homes – really, the historic nature of the area that surrounds them – has become an unexpected hurdle. The project has to pass muster with the State Historic Preservation Office in order to qualify for federal housing vouchers. While the streamlining of state laws for affordable housing would normally put the project on a glide path, it’s a sticky case on the federal side.

The City of Monterey has been a willing and eager partner in the project – as envisioned, it will hopefully lease the property to MidPen. To expedite the process, the city hired Rincon Consultants, a firm that has a long and successful history with Monterey projects involving potential historic resources, to help clear the last hurdles. The price tag is roughly $224,000 for that work.

On a recent weekday, Kim Cole, Monterey’s community development director, walks the site, just behind city hall, to show how it will lay out. The structures to be demolished will be cleared for two – and three-story buildings that will house studio, one-, two – and three-bedroom apartments. The three-story sections, in the center, are envisioned to be set back from the street so as to not be visible from the sidewalk.

There’s also a plan to relocate the community garden currently thriving in the middle of the decaying buildings – that will have a new location a stone’s throw away. And the parking lot behind City Hall will be cut in half – it’s housing ideal for those who don’t need to move on four wheels.

But first, the wheels of bureaucracy need to spin a bit more.