A Monterey developer has tentative plans to build up to 405 apartments at a site along Garden Road that is now home to dozens of commercial offices.

The developers, listed on city documents as Keith and Jannette Slama, are asking the city to convert existing buildings into multifamily residential units (apartments or condominiums), according to Monterey Planning Department documents that were released Thursday. A cap of 405 units would be placed on the project.

The document is a notice of intent to adopt a determination that the project would have no significant impacts on the environment (known as a negative declaration). An initial study will be published Monday, which will trigger a public comment period on the proposed project beginning Monday and running through April 18.

The addresses listed on the planning document that could be affected by the conversion are 1900, 2000, 2100, 2150, 2200, 2300, 2340, 2354, 2400, 2460, 2500, 2560, 2600 and 2700 Garden Road. Also listed are 30, 60, 67, 70 and 80 Garden Court. The office of the Monterey Herald is one of the addresses listed.

The listed developer of the project is Keith Slama. A message left for Slama at Slama Rentals in Salinas inquiring about his intentions was not returned.

Elizabeth Caraker, housing and community development manager for Monterey, cautioned that the current action is not about the project directly, rather just a first step in getting the land rezoned from light industrial to multifamily residential.

The rezoning application will go before the Planning Commission April 23 and to the City Council on May 21, Caraker said.

Like any project along the Monterey Peninsula, water will be a concern. But since Slama’s office buildings already have hookups, water will likely not be a key issue. The project is already capped at 40 percent of existing building space, making the 405 units an estimate. The amendment would allow a conversion rate of one multifamily residential unit per every 900 square feet of existing building space.

“If a developer wants to redevelop a property there is a certain amount of water available on site,” Caraker said. “It is up to the developer to research.”

Affordable housing is also a hot button issue on the Peninsula. Without knowing the intentions of the developer, the amount of affordable units would fall to Monterey’s ordinance governing inclusionary housing. The ordinance states that 20 percent of units in a development must be within the definitions of affordable housing.

Called a multifamily residential overlay district, it is “intended to facilitate the provisions of residential uses to address the housing shortage in the city of Monterey and promote infill development and workforce housing, which may encourage affordable housing near jobs,” according to the released planning document.

That is music to the ears of Michael DeLapa, the executive director of LandWatch Monterey County, which keeps a close eye on land-use decisions the city makes.

“(We) support the proposed zoning amendment to allow mixed uses and multifamily residential uses … along Garden Road,” DeLapa wrote to Michael Dawson, the chairman of the Monterey Planning Commission. “We commend the city of Monterey for this far-sighted approach to more sustainable planning and urge the Planning Commission to support the amendment.

“This is the kind of infill projects we consistently support,” DeLapa told The Herald Friday.