A little more than a decade ago, the roll out of the Del Webb at Woodbridge subdivision stunned some due to its sheer size.
Up until then, the biggest residential subdivisions proposed in Manteca were typically 400 homes or less. Del Webb broke the 1,000-lot barrier for proposed new neighborhoods coming in at 1,460 proposed homes.
Now it seems the day of semi-mega projects of 1,000 homes has arrived.
The second new proposal within the past 14 months for a development with more than 1,000 homes is now having its draft environmental review being circulated for comment.
Oakwood Landing — proposed for 258.99 acres south of the proposed McKinley Avenue and 120 Bypass interchange, straddling Woodward Avenue and abutting against the segment now in place of the new eastern alignment of McKinley Avenue on the east and on the west by the future alignment of Atherton Drive where it curves south to T-intersect with Woodward Avenue — encompasses 1,360 housing units.
It comes on the heels of Griffin Park — 1,592 homes proposed on 333.94 acres west of South Main Street with part of the development touching Sedan Road in the south, Tinnin Road on the west and straddling Woodward Avenue in the north.

3,908 homes now
on drawing board
south of 120 Bypass
near McKinley Avenue
With Oakwood Landing and Griffin Park in the mix, Manteca has more than 12,000 lots at some point in the development process from initial environmental work to lots that now have homes being built on them. To put that in perspective that is roughly half of Manteca’s current housing inventory. They could easily add 40,000 residents to the city’s population that is currently at 76,000 residents. By comparison, the largest planned community currently being built in California — River Islands at Lathrop — is designed to accommodate 11,000 homes. Between the Manteca projects and River Islands alone they have the potential of housing the equivalent of today’s population of Manteca.
Oakwood Landing is just east of the approved 1,460 homes Trails of Manteca south of Woodward Avenue and the Oakwood Shores gated community that has been on the books since 2010. Oakwood Landing north of Woodward Avenue is bordered on the west by Oakwood Trails that will add 676 homes. Altogether there are four 1,000 plus neighborhoods at various points in the process from actual construction at Del Webb to comments on the environmental report for Oakwood Landing.
Oakwood Shores is outside Manteca’s city limits although there have been preliminary discussions about the neighborhood annexing to the city due to expectations they may not be able to handle wastewater treatment eventually.
West of Oakwood Shores adjacent to Oakwood Trails the city has approved the Terra Ranch neighborhood with 212 single family homes and 200 apartments.
Oakwood Landing, Trails of Manteca, Terra Ranch, and Oakwood Trails altogether would involve building 3,908 homes south and southwest of the future McKinley and 120 Bypass interchange.  That has the potential of generating in excess of 12,000 more residents or roughly four fifths the current population of the City of Ripon.
The three projects are also within the 200-year floodplain and would be subject to building fees to help pay for levee upgrades expected to cost as much as $180 million.

Oakwood Landing may
be thorny political issue
as council members
are pushing for more jobs
Politically, Oakwood Landing presents a potentially thorny issue. At least one council member — Debby Moorhead — stridently expressed dismay at  council meetings in the past two months about Manteca not benefit from the rush that is bringing distribution center jobs to Tracy, Lathrop, and Stockton.
Oakwood Landing would convert 200 plus acres currently zoned for business parks into housing. Experts in luring firms to relocate operations have made it clear Manteca’s two biggest problems are the lack of existing distribution center space to lease and its dearth of land set aside for future business parks.
Manteca currently has 1.8 percent of the overall 6.2 million square feet of existing business park space in San Joaquin County or 212,000 square feet. The only cities with less are Ripon and Escalon.
But when it comes to land set aside and zoned for future business parks, Manteca is even in a worse position beating only Escalon. Manteca has one-seventh that of Stockton, just more than one fifth of Tracy, under a half of Lathrop, and even a third less than Ripon.
Oakwood Landing would involve one neighborhood north of Woodward Avenue dubbed Denali. It would have 319 homes on lots ranging from 5,000 to 16,300 square feet. The neighborhood south of Woodward Avenue — Cerri — is planned for 656 homes on lots ranging from 3,800 to 14,883 square feet.
There also would be 290 apartments or condos on 11.59 acres on the northeast corner where Atherton Drive — after crossing the existing alignment of McKinley Avenue — swings to the southwest and T-intersects with Woodward Avenue.
There is also 24.31 acres of commercial mixed use where the extension of Atherton would cross the existing McKinley Avenue. That is enough to support 237,830 square feet of commercial or combined store space equivalent to roughly twice the space as the Manteca Target store.
Adjoining land to the north on the south of the 120 Bypass and existing McKinley Avenue undercrossing has enough commercial zoning when combined with Oakwood Landing could support 750,000 square feet or the size of The Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley at full buildout.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com