The Los Gatos Town Council has unanimously approved a project that will see four homes built for teachers near downtown.

The developer says the project will likely be used as a footprint for other developments in the town and elsewhere in Santa Clara County.

The project meets Los Gatos’ below market housing guidelines and also complies with the 2016 Teacher Housing Act.

Plans call for building two, two bedroom, two bath homes that will rent for no more than $2,017 per month, developer Sarah Chaffin said.

Two one bedroom, one bath accessory dwelling units also will be built and rented for no more than $1,625.

“I’m hoping the rents will be lower than that,” Chaffin said.

The four homes will be built on the outskirts of the downtown Los Gatos shopping district at the entrance to Los Gatos Creek Trail.

In 2011, attempts to build 32 low-income homes on the town-owned property were thwarted by residents, angry because dozens of trees that line the trail entrance would be taken out to meet fire department requirements.

The approved proposal meets fire department requirements.

The council also considered a revised Habitat for Humanity proposal to build between two and four affordable homes. Habitat’s project was denied, in part, because it did not include specifics about how the development would impact the trail entrance.

But it was the impact on teachers that carried the day.

“I’ve seen at least three of my own children’s teachers have to move away because it’s been too difficult for them to stay here,” said Los Gatos resident and elementary teacher Stephanie Young.

Although the project is called “Support Teacher Housing,” Chaffin said other school employees, like reading specialists, could also apply to rent the units.

She said the project could serve as a model for other developments. Officials did not specify when the project would begin.

“This model can be replicated for other people in the ‘missing middle’ like nursing assistants and police dispatchers,” she said. “All those community helpers who want to live near where they work but can’t afford it.”

Chaffin’s web site, supportteacherhousing.org, describes the missing middle as moderate income householders and notes that “only one percent of housing built since 2015 is for the missing middle in the Silicon Valley.”