SAN JOSE — A wealthy landowner wants to build affordable teacher housing on her private land using her own money, but San Jose City Hall is pushing back.

Sarah Chaffin’s proposal to build eight to 16 new apartment units designated for teachers would help ease a critical affordable housing shortage in pricey Silicon Valley where even middle-income families struggle to find a place within their budgets. But it runs afoul of another city priority: preserving jobs and tax-producing businesses.

“I love the project idea,” said Councilwoman Dev Davis, who represents the area. “But the site is not a residential site. It’s not the right location for this project, unfortunately. We need to preserve lands that are available for employment in our city.”

San Jose is largely considered “jobs poor” — a bedroom community with more housing than jobs. The imbalance costs tax dollars because businesses generally pay much more in taxes than they require in city services, and residents leave the city during the day for work.

Chaffin, a Los Gatos mortgage adviser, bought the chunk of land at 2119 Lincoln Avenue in 2010. The site, about 12,185 square feet, is zoned for commercial use and is now home to a hair salon. But Chaffin says the market’s made it difficult to develop retail there, and it’s become blighted.

With her own funding, Chaffin proposed building either eight apartment units rising two stories or 16 units across three stories, all earmarked for teachers, while keeping the salon or an equivalent amount of commercial space.

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Chaffin, who said her teachers helped her overcome dyslexia, is passionate about teacher housing and the so-called “missing middle” — a segment of moderate-income earners who don’t qualify for low-income housing but are squeezed out by the tech-fueled riches of Silicon Valley.

According to data from the Association of Bay Area Governments, less than 1 percent of housing built between 2007 and 2014 in Santa Clara County is for moderate-income households. If her model works, Chaffin plans to replicate it for other medium earners — government workers, nurses, firefighters and cops.

Many of these workers earn too much for subsidized housing. Most teachers in San Jose’s metropolitan area in 2016 earned an average of $48,000, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows. Firefighters earned about $85,000 and cops got $118,000 — not counting their pensions — and registered nurses brought home $120,000.

But in some parts of the costly Bay Area, even six-figure salaries are now considered low-income.

Under Chaffin’s pilot program, teachers would pay $2,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. One thousand dollars would be placed into a savings account for a down payment for a house. The Teacher Housing Act of 2016 helped open the door to teacher-only affordable housing.

City planners recommended that the planning commission deny Chaffin’s plan. She says City Hall is treating her differently from other landowners.

Because she’s keeping the commercial space, Chaffin said, her project isn’t a total jobs-to-housing conversion: She’s requesting an “urban residential” designation to allow for housing on the top floors with retail underneath. City officials have approved similar projects for others, she added, including a recent proposal to build apartments on Joseph Avenue near Bascom Avenue.

“Their argument that there would be a loss of employment land isn’t correct because I’m keeping the existing commercial space,” she said. “I think it’s been difficult because I’m not known to City Hall. They’ve questioned whether I have enough money to fund this project, and I gave them a letter from my private banker. I’ve gone out of my way to prove to them I’m serious about this project.”

Planning Director Harry Freitas said city planners evaluate projects on a case-by-case basis, but that it’s not enough to keep the commercial space on the ground floor because housing doesn’t belong on the site. Once the city changes the development rights, a future owner could build market-rate housing there, he said.

The Planning Commission will consider the proposal on May 24 and the City Council in early August.

“We don’t differentiate between people who are known to us and those who are not,” Freitas said. “There are different circumstances on every site.”

One lingering concern is whether Chaffin would start out with housing teachers, then sell the land or flip the apartments to market-rate rentals. To ease those worries, Chaffin said she’d agree to a use restriction.

Bob Staedler, a longtime land use consultant who’s representing Chaffin pro bono, said it’s unfortunate that government is blocking someone who’s offering solutions to the housing crisis.

“It’s kind of disappointing that people look at it with such skepticism,” Staedler said. “There are a lot of people who want to help and when the government and planning process is so convoluted, people get frustrated and they give up.”

Councilman Donald Rocha hopes Chaffin doesn’t give up. He’s pushed for city leaders to consider some exceptions to the no jobs-to-housing conversion rule, including affordable housing.

“We should at least allow the conversation to happen,” Rocha said, “instead of a blanket no.”