A 230-acre annexation before the City Council tonight will play an oversized role in shaping Manteca as the community heads north.

It contains several key elements in terms of meeting growth objectives through 2045 as outlined in the recent general plan update.

*It will allow Manteca to buy 60 acres for its next community park.

*The annexation will bring in another 170 acres for the first of what is expected to be a series of distribution center style business parks expected to dominate the north Manteca landscape as the city expands toward French Camp Road.

*The developer of the business park will construct major utility infrastructure such as roadway, sewer, water, and drainage to serve the project.

*It includes dedication of an interim storm basin easement supporting Union Ranch North — a 455-unit housing development to the south of the park site and north of the existing Union Ranch neighborhood.

The council agenda for tonight’s 6 p.m. meeting also includes the purchase and sale agreement for the 60 acres at a price of $6,550,000.

The land will be paid for from fees on hand that have been collected for community park facilities from new growth citywide.

A separate development agreement for the Union Ranch North neighborhood includes that developer paying $12,000 per home to go toward the community park project. At buildout, that comes to $5,460,000.

Industrial park

The annexation is the latest step on a long-term process by the city to establish a business park area generally north of the future extension of Roth Road east from Airport Way to the Highway 99 Frontage Road and north toward French Camp Road.

Eventually, the city plans to pursue an interchange on Highway 99 with Roth Road.

It is designed to take advantage of the appeal of companies locating distribution centers near the recently expanded Union Pacific Railroad intermodal facility on Roth Road nestled between the cities of Manteca and Lathrop.

The expanded yard will eventually handle up to 780,000 container lifts in a year for freight truck to rail traffic.

The intermodal yard would have access to both Interstate 5 and Highway 99 when the interchange a mile north of Lathrop Road is built on Highway 99.

The area Manteca wants to develop as a business park center is also within three miles of Stockton Metro Airport. Six miles to the northeast on North Austin Road is the Santa Fe intermodal facility.

Both are designed to serve the 18 million consumer strong Northern California market.

Community park

The 60 acres for the future community park are on the southeast corner of the Lovelace Road/Union Road intersection.

Forty acres will be 100 percent dedicated to a community park while the remaining 40 acres would be a storm retention basin/open space.

The approach is similar to Woodward Park where the open space most of the year is used for soccer as well as various events.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com