Monterey has four affordable housing projects in the works, but not enough water to give.

On May 17, the Monterey City Council will discuss four city-owned properties it hopes to turn into affordable housing, and will be asked to wrestle with some challenging questions about how to move forward with making them a reality.

At the top of that list is water, or the lack thereof: The city has 5.2 acre-feet of water annually it can allocate to the projects. But dedicating all the water to one or more of the projects, City Manager Hans Uslar says, would hinder the city’s ability to give water to public works projects like an additional restroom here or there, or water for an additional fire station.

The total water need for these projects is about 17 acre-feet annually. If built, the projects would add a combined 150 affordable units to the housing stock – but because of the existing cease and desist order the State Water Board has imposed upon Cal Am for its illegal overpumping of the Carmel River, the water isn’t there for them.

The City Council sent letters in March to various agencies, including the State Water Board, asking that it lift the order. They articulated a conundrum: The city is being asked by the state to facilitate affordable housing, but the state won’t lift the order – not yet, at least – to allow it.

The barrier the order presents does not appear likely to change until the expansion of the recycled water project Pure Water Monterey comes online in about two years, if all goes as planned. (That project is up for approval before the California Public Utilities Commission this fall.)

“Cal Am has to prove that it has secured a permanent supply of water to meet demand,” State Water Resources Control Board spokesperson Ailene Voisin writes, regarding the lifting of the cease and desist order. The existing order precludes Cal Am from adding new water meters.

The four proposed projects are located at 417 Figueroa Ave., 438 Calle Principal, 442 Adams St., and four properties located behind City Hall on Madison and Van Buren streets that are envisioned to be consolidated into a single development. That one is a proposed two-story, 21-unit apartment building – per a 2020 city report – on about a half-acre, which would include on-site parking.

The latter project is one city officials seem to think is the most feasible right away – it requires only 1.68 acre-feet of water – but would require moving some city offices in the buildings.

Other questions the Council will consider are whether to contribute city funds to help finance the projects, and whether to specify a preference for Monterey residents when considering tenants.

Uslar adds one of the goals for the projects is to make at least some of the units available to people who earn too much income to qualify for affordable housing, but who nonetheless struggle to find an affordable place to live locally. A lot of Monterey city employees, he says, fall into that category.

“It doesn’t pass muster that certain income levels are excluded,” Uslar says. “We’ve got to find a sweet spot there.”