Manteca may be getting more office space.

Chahal Surjit of Modesto is seeking to build a complex of five office buildings at 1950 West Yosemite Avenue on acreage bordered by Fishback Road on the east by Rain Forest Nursery and older residential property on the west and tract homes on the south.

The proposed project is down the street from Kaiser Hospital. The proposal for offices goes before the Manteca Planning Commission on Tuesday, Jan. 23.

Manteca looks at

expanding transit

center parking

Manteca’s city leaders are gearing up for the Altamont Corridor Express passenger train service coming to downtown Manteca by 2023.

The City Council is meeting in closed session Tuesday at 6 p.m. to discuss price and terms for five parcels along Moffat Boulevard to allow for expansion of the Manteca Transit Center parking lot.

The parcels include the Manteca Recycling Center, the old gas station site where a canopy still stands and a vacant parcel.

The purchase, if it happens, would  give the city the ability to add additional parking not only on the parcels under negotiation but also on city-owned land between the Manteca Veterans Center/Moffat Community Center and the municipal water treatment facility.

They would all be tied to the transit center by the Tidewater Bikeway as well as a sidewalk along Moffat Boulevard.

ACE is projecting ultimately the downtown Manteca station will have 300,000 passengers boarding trains each year or 1,200 riders on a daily basis.

While a number are expected to ride buses and bicycles to the station or be dropped off many will need a place to park.

Given than the Manteca Unified School District board is looking at re-orientating the front of the Manteca High campus to Moffat Boulevard and possibly building  a new gym while at the same time and hopes to assume control of the section of Garfield Avenue that slices through the campus, the city’s parking lot plans cold dovetail perfectly into the school district’s plans.

The future transit center parking wouldn’t be in use when there are football or basketball games.

Would John Muir

order a cappuccino?

There are more than a few people — 15,000 plus so far — up in arms about a proposal for the National Park Service to allow the opening of a Starbucks in Yosemite Village in Yosemite National Park.

The petition at change.org asserts “Multinational corporations have no place in our National Parks” and urges decision makers to “consider local establishments”.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com