A plan to build a 136-unit apartment complex backing up to Del Webb at Woodbridge on 5.6 acres along Lathrop Road west of Union Road is before the Manteca Planning Commission on Tuesday.
The high density housing is allowed under the Union Ranch Specific Plan that not only created medium residential housing in the form of Del Webb and neighboring Union Ranch but also commercial as well as 13.6 acres of high density residential that allows 341 apartment units overall.
The proposal dubbed Manteca Luxury Apartments will account for 136 units. The previously approved Woodbridge Apartments on 6.5 acres sandwiched between the Union Ranch neighborhood and the commercial development on the northeast corner of Union and Lathrop roads will have 128 units. That leaves 1.5 acres on which as many as 77 apartment units could be built.
During a previous vetting of the project being advanced by Rupinder Dhillon of Tracy a number of residents in the Del Webb neighborhood balked at the idea of high density housing abutting their neighborhood. In the case of Manteca Luxury Apartments, it includes six three-story buildings with apartment units and a two-story clubhouse with outdoor swimming pool.
The design included in the commission agenda packet has three of those apartment buildings near the rear of the property near Del Webb homes. There are no windows on the side of the apartment buildings directly facing north where Del Webb at Woodbridge is located. There will be an 8-foot masonry sound wall at the back of the property. Two rows of parking spaces and a driveway will set the apartments away from the sound wall.
The driveway has been realigned to tie into Lathrop Road with the exit from Union Square next to Raley’s to allow the installation of traffic signals. The signals would be 560 feet west of the existing signals at Union Road and Louise Avenue and 740 feet east of the Madison Grove intersection that provides access to Del Webb.
There is now a much longer driveway between Lathrop Road and the access gate that is roughly at the site’s midpoint. There will be open space along roughly three quarters of the footage along Lathrop Road. A decorative wrought iron fence is proposed for the east, west, and south sides of the complex.
What is not included is a bus turnout that Manteca Unified School District expressed a need for given there are 103 students that could be generated from the complex and there’s no nearby neighborhood school. Not only is it precarious having a bus stopping and blocking a traffic lane on a busy four-lane road but Lathrop Road is also a truck route. A school bus would have a difficult time maneuvering internal driveways to turn around.
The commission meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabuletin.com
