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1,068 homes on drawing board
Oleander Estates before planners Tuesday
HOMES4-8-7-10a
A proposed 536-home project by Raymus Homes will provide lots for future housing needs. Crews are shown working on new homes west of Airport Way. - photo by HIME ROMERO
A slightly redesigned Oleander Estates means Woodward Avenue’s neighborhood feel will remain intact.

Oleander Estates is one of two adjoining projects west of Union Road that will straddle Woodward Avenue to ultimately generate 1,068 homes between them where there are now former dairies, almond orchards and open fields.

The Manteca Planning Commission when they meet Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Civic Center will review a subdivision map revision for Raymus Homes’ 536-home Oleander project. It adjoins Frontier Homes’ 451-home Sundance neighborhood. There also would be a Sundance 2 project with 79 higher density housing units.

The Oleander project is south of Woodward Avenue and straddles Oleander Avenue. Part of it touches Peach Avenue and Union Road.

The 112.36-acre Oleander neighborhood includes a park sites with six acres.
There was a movement at one time to send four lanes of traffic down Woodward Avenue from Main Street to its western terminus near Wetherbee Lake.

Critics couldn’t understand why Woodward Avenue should be four lanes when Atherton Drive was being developed as a major four lane arterial less than a quarter of a mile to the north.

A second look at Manteca’s future traffic circulation planning that emphasized the need to reduce costs as well as to de-emphasize catering to shaving seconds off of trips at the expense of neighborhoods means Woodward Avenue is being viewed as a two-lane collector street as Manteca grows south of the Highway 120 Bypass.
That would make Woodward Avenue a collector street much like Powers Avenue, Crom Street, Hacienda Avenue, and Tannehill Drive.

That led to a new streetscape plan for Woodward Avenue that has the potential of making it the nicest looking two-lane collector street in Manteca by retaining the semi-rural atmosphere. Ultimately, Woodward Avenue will consist of larger lots - existing as well as proposed - that would be more accurately described as estate sized with some as large as an acre.

Design standards are being planned that would continue the semi-rural character of the existing housing and require new development to fit into that pattern instead of erecting sound walls.

That is partially what prompted the redesign of the map to accommodate homes along Woodward Avenue. It also eliminated six housing sites to provide the larger lots.

The width of Woodward is proposed at 76 feet from the back of sidewalks on each side of the street. There will be a 14-foot wide median planted with trees flanked by 11-foot travel lanes along with 5-foot bike lanes by the curb. There will also be a 10-foot wide landscaping area with trees between the curb and five-foot wide sidewalk. In addition all new homes will have a minimum 30-foot setback from the back of the sidewalk. In the case of an existing sound wall or a project that has been already approved but not built, there will be a 19-foot setback from the back of the sidewalk that will be landscaped with a 7-foot masonry wall.

Driveways will be deigned to allow vehicles to enter and leave the roadway in a forward direction. This can be accomplished with circular or hammerhead driveway designs.

No more than two adjacent homes will have the same front yard setback just as is the case along existing Woodward Avenue.

Since setbacks are deeper, front yard landscaping will incorporate a mixture of drought tolerant trees, shrubs, and ground covers. It may include the installation of natural landscape features such as rock and stone, walkways, plazas, courtyards, and structural features such as fountains.

Sundance will dovetail into the Dutra Farms neighborhood on the southeast corner of Atherton Drive and Airport Way. It will complete the Dutra Farms Park and extend Red Pheasant Lane, Blue Bird Avenue, Red Ribbons Lane, Sparrow Avenue, and Nighthawk Lane to the south as well as Sparrowhawk Street to the east.

The eastern portion of Sundance will back up to the proposed 55-acre commercial development on the southwest corner of the Union Road and Highway 120 Bypass interchange.