Manteca is working on an effort to annex the 480-home Oakwood Shores gated community to the city in what would be a win-win situation for both residents and the city.

City Manager Toni Lundgren said that municipal staff, in examining the impacts of the city’s sixth fire station that will be built in southwest Manteca, noted the neighborhood on the western end of Woodward Avenue that is within the county’s jurisdiction would benefit significantly.

Oakwood Shores is served by the Lathrop Manteca Fire District with the closest station more than four miles away on South Union Road. District fire engines need to go through the city to reach Oakwood Shores.

The new station would be less than a mile from Oakwood Shores.

The district and city currently have an automatic aid agreement that automatically dispatches the nearest available engine to a fire service call regardless of the jurisdiction.

 The look at annexation was also jump started in part by a request by Lafferty Homes to access City of Manteca sewer service to build homes on land next to Oakwood Shores.

Oakwood Shores, a few years back, connected to the Manteca’s wastewater treatment system in exchange for the city securing right-of-way for a future storm drain outlet to the San Joaquin River that will run north of where homes are built.

The community was able to avoid costly updates to its own wastewater treatment system.

Oakwood Shores homeowners are paying higher monthly sewer rates than their counterparts within the city limits as they are out-of-city customers.

If they are annexed, Oakwood Shores homeowners would see lower monthly sewer bills.

Annexation would also mean they would have Manteca Police service.

If they were to annex, there would be no change in their property tax bills outside of what changes happen under Proposition 13 or when homes are sold.

The real impact on annexation is how the property tax dollars that are San Joaquin County’s share is divided going forward.

The city wants a 50-50 split while the county favors a higher split.

Manteca’s argument is they would be funding services such as police and fire.

Typically, 50 percent of all basic property tax bills — that excludes bond measures and special assessments — goes to schools. Counties get roughly 22 percent while cities receive between 16 and 18 percent. The rest is divided among other government entities including Delta College.

The negotiations are over the county’s 22 percent of which the city is seeking 50 percent.

Among the other judications getting a slice of the property tax is the Lathrop Manteca Fire District that would have to agree to some form of de-annexation agreement.

Twelve years ago, the city hammered out an agreement with the Ripon Consolidated Fire district when a large swath of land was annexed along Austin Road.

The agreement — that runs for 15 years — essentially had the city taking the fire district’s portion before annexation and slowly reducing the amount of the annual payments to the district from being 100 percent whole to being zeroed out after 15 years.

The annexation, if it were to move forward, would be the responsibility of Lafferty Homes to make happen. It would require the consent of property owners within Oakwood Shores.

The city will not consider annexation unless Oakwood Shores is included.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com