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County looks at expanding legal truck parking
truck parking
A legal truck parking facility is shown in northwest Manteca on Intermodal Way southwest of Amazon and 5.11 Tactical.

San Joaquin County’s rapidly growing distribution center sector — along with increased truck traffic serving two major railroad intermodal facilities operated by Union Pacific as well as Santa Fe — has created a shortage of locations for truck parking and truck sales in the unincorporated areas of the county.

As a result, the problem of illegal commercial truck parking has mushroomed in the county as well as some cities such as Manteca.

To address the concern, the San Joaquin County Community Development Department is exploring options that would create opportunities for the development of more legal truck parking facilities.

The move to change zoning on qualifying parcels within a half mile radius from interchanges on Highway 99, Interstate 5, Interstate 205 and Interstate 580 is a follow up to a 2017-2008 San Joaquin County Grand Jury report that slammed the proliferation of illegal truck parking.

Among parcels the county is considering to allow legal truck parking facilities are within a half mile of the Lathrop Road and Austin Road interchanges along Highway 99 in Manteca as well as within a half mile of the Roth Road and Manthey Road interchanges along Interstate 5 in Lathrop.

The county sought to comply with the Grand Jury’s call for stepped up enforcement by hiring an additional code enforcement officer. However, the problem — despite increased ticketing — has gotten worse.

County code enforcement currently has 42 open enforcement cases for violations involving truck and/or trailer parking, storage, or sales.

The county is conducting a second workshop on the issue involving the potential zoning of parcels to accommodate commercial truck parking Thursday, June 3, at 6 p.m.

For the purposes of this study session, parcels that were identified by any one of the categories below were excluded as potential sites.

*Classified as Important Farmland (which includes Prime Farmland, Farmland of Statewide & Local Importance, or Unique Farmland).

*Under a current Williamson Act Contract .

*Located in the Primary or Secondary Zone of the Delta.

*Currently designated with an AU-20 (Agriculture-Urban Reserve, 20 acre minimum) zone classification.

*Have an existing residence on the parcel.

After the workshop county planning staff will devise standards for a new designation for an agricultural-industrial zoning.

The workshop takes place Thursday at 6 p.m. at Board of Supervisors chambers at the county administrative center at 44 North San Joaquin in downtown Stockton.

Planning Commission hearings have been closed to the general public for the past year and public participation has been conducted remotely. However, as of today, the Board of Supervisors chambers will now be open to the public with restrictions. A maximum of 56 persons may be in the chambers at any given time, which includes staff.  All attendees are required to wear a mask, social distance and, once an attendee has spoken, is encouraged to leave the chambers. If you are interested in attending the meeting in person, email planningclerical@sjgov.org to confirm so. This will allow staff to make arrangements to accommodate the anticipated number of participants.

 In addition, public participation is still permitted remotely by email (pcrecords@sjgov.org) or by Microsoft Teams (via computer and/or phone) as explained on the Community Development Department website and public hearing notice.

All votes during the teleconference will be conducted by roll call vote. The following alternatives are available to members of the public to watch these hearings and provide comments to the Planning Commission before and during the meeting:

To participate you can use Microsoft Teams via computer or mobile device at https://sjgov.link/planning-commission-hearing or pr by calling (209) 645-4071, Conference ID: 399 715 502#

To watch the workshop is being live streamed at: https://www.youtube.com/c/SanJoaquinCountyCA

Members of the public may listen to the hearing by calling (209) 468-0750