The City of Manteca has set in motion the cleanup of yet more problematic Union Road properties.
The four-plexes at 457, 477, and 491 S. Union Road have been in a blighted state for a number of years.
Code enforcement has been working with a law firm to ensure the needed corrections and improvements would be made if and when new owners purchased the property.
The property has now been purchased. The new owner is legally obligated to expeditiously rehabilitate the property and has agreed to meet all city requirements as part of the rehabilitation. The new owner is in the early stages of a complete renovation.
As part of the property transfer, the city has recovered all legal fees and $71,280.74 in fines, including abatement costs related to enforcement actions.
The city several years ago worked out an abatement of another nearby attractive nuisance — an abandoned home that had been commandeered by the homeless as makeshift shelter, was used as an illegal dump, and where numerous fires had been started — known as the Gordon property at 1085 South Union at the T-intersection with Mission Ridge Drive.
The property had been blighted since the mid-1980s. It was used to operate a chemical reformulation and repackaging business known as Gordon Research. Although leftover chemicals were removed, an investigation noted 13 areas that are contaminated with lead, arsenic, and cadmium, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, and petroleum hydrocarbons. The California Environmental Protection Agency determined there was no imminent threat to the ground water so the risk wasn’t high enough for the agency to fund the cleanup.
The Islamic Center of Manteca is moving toward establishing the Nur Al-Huda & College Preparatory on the site. The elementary school would serve about 200 students.
The project was made possible in part by the city agreeing to release a $48,554 lien against the property for code enforcement and abatement costs they incurred over the years in exchange for 17,000 cubic feet of clean fill dirt for the Union Road interchange project now underway.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
