By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
HERE COME TOWNHOUSES
Latest Manteca project envisions 13 units at Alameda & Walnut
DIMAOND VILLAS APARTMENTS1 6-3-17
This is one of the dilapidated homes that will be torn down along Lincoln Avenue to make way for townhouses. - photo by Bulletin file photo

It’s been at least 15 years — if not longer — since new townhouses were built in Manteca.
That is about to change.
The Manteca Planning Commission on Tuesday will review plans for 13 townhouses for the southwest corner of  North Walnut Avenue and Alameda Street. The land is currently vacant.
That comes on the heels of city approval for 43 townhouse units in a proposed gated community on 2.1 acres between Grant and Lincoln avenues north of Edison Street.
The latest townhouse project will include two buildings encompassing 5,200 square feet and one with 6,500 square feet on 0.89 acres. All of the townhouse will have one and two bedroom two-story floorplans. There will also be 400 square feet of private open space per dwelling in the form of porches, courtyards, or balconies.
The project between Grant and Lincoln avenues known as Diamond Villas has a $17 million plus development price tag.
 More than four years ago Magnolia Court — subsidized senior housing apartments — was built along Grant Avenue behind Dribbles Car Wash and Burger King.
The townhouse will require razing several dilapidated homes that created problems in recent years with vagrants and homeless breaking into them.
Diamond Villas townhouses are three stories and are attached in eight clusters with the largest number of units clustered together being seven facing Grant Avenue. Six attached townhouses will face Lincoln Avenue. The developer plans to build Diamond Villas in four phases.
Two-car garages will be on the ground floor with residential quarters on the second and third floors. The three-story townhouses will range in size from 1,881 to 2,231 square feet. All garages will face private streets with four-foot driveway aprons.
The majority of the townhouses will have minimum front yard setbacks of 10 feet except for nine units being built next to the common area in the center of the project. They will have no setback. Front yards will have a minimum of one tree each.
The common area will include a clubhouse with exercise room, a swimming pool, and a BBQ area. The common areas as well as landscaping will be maintained through a home owners association.
Overall the project has 30 percent open space. It also exceeds parking requirements for high density housing as each townhouse will have a two-car garage. There are also 14 parking stalls on site for guests. That does not include street parking fronting the project on Grant or Lincoln.
The 2.19 acre site will have a density of 19.55 dwelling units per acre making it consisted with general plan guidelines for high density development. That is roughly four times the number of homes in a typical single family subdivision built in Manteca during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
There are high density parcels to the north and medium density to the south. The six parcels cobbled together for the project include legal non-conforming single family homes and vacant lots. To the east are single family homes and apartments while to the north are duplexes.
 The townhouse development will be gated. While two private streets will go thru the project between Grant and Lincoln, the southern street’s gates will remain closed at all times.
The Planning Commission meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com