Modifying the city’s height limit for signs along freeway corridors could translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars in general fund revenue to help underwrite municipal services.

Raising the present limit of 75 feet will make a project with Outfront media work due to visibility issues on a site along the 120 Bypass where the city is trying to negotiate a deal for one of two electronic billboards located on municipal and private properties.

In doing so, it would increase visibility for the sign and eliminate the need to remove trees in the Caltrans right-of-way.

“After working with our Economic Development team and the City Attorney, we believe that increasing the height limit, especially along the freeway, will help drive economic growth,” Mayor Gary Singh said.

“Raising the limit could generate hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to help fund city needs and protect our trees along our freeways. Taller signage also provides better visibility and advertising opportunities, encouraging more commercial development along our corridors and motivating travelers to get off the freeway and shop in Manteca.”

 Manteca could end up with two electronic billboards — one along the 120 Bypass west of Living Spaces and the other along northbound Highway 99 before the Lathrop Road exit.

It is part of negotiations the city is having with Outfront Media.

The 120 Bypass billboard would go on part of the 3.85-acre parcel the city bought in 2024 for $2.2 million along Atherton Drive just west of Living Spaces.

The city will receive annual revenue from the electronic billboard with a built-in escalation clause for inflation.

They also will have billboard time to promote city and community events.

As for the Highway 99 location, the city will share the annual revenue from that electronic billboard sign with the property owner where the current static billboard is located.

The two electronic billboards are the outgrowth of negotiations/settlement talks the city has been having with Outfront Media.

Outfront Media holds a lease to four billboards on city property that is part of the Tidewater Bikeway along Moffat Boulevard.

The city has been trying to end the arrangement for years as spelled out in the lease but the firm has refused to do so.

The city has been working to make the proverbial lemonade out of two lemons — the odd parcel along Atherton Drive and the Moffat Boulevard billboards that are basically in a city park.

The Tidewater Bikeway was developed from abandoned railroad right of way the city bought from Union Pacific Railroad in the 1990s.

A such, they inherited the billboard leases.

The city has crafted a solution that, in exchange for removing the billboards along Moffat, Outfront Media will be allowed to install the electronic billboard on what is now city property along the 120 Bypass.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com