City of Manteca Manager Karen McLaughlin indicated during Tuesday’s City Council meeting that staff is starting to work on special zoning changes to help foster downtown investment and development.

The potential changes are the direct result of surveys and a summit conducted by the Manteca Chamber of Commerce that included downtown businesses and property owners last week.

Fourteen years ago then Planning Director Gerry Raycraft who came to Manteca via El Cerrito had started working on specific downtown zoning after meeting with merchants. At the time the big push was to allow use of public sidewalks for outdoor dining. That effort faded with Raycraft’s departure.

Zoning changes being considered would provide the downtown commercial area with rules that make sense for existing urban-style development instead of what the city applies to new shopping center projects.