River Islands one day will have an age-restricted neighborhood just a bit larger than Manteca’s 1,406-home Del Webb at Woodbridge neighborhood.

Cambay Group plans to set aside 1,500 of the 11,000 housing units it has received approval to build as part of the 4,800 acre planned community.

Project Manager Susan Dell’Osso said they have been approached by several builders that specialize in age-restricted communities about doing a project on River Islands. Dell’Osso noted an age-restricted neighborhood is not on the immediate horizon but one will be built.

“It is a natural fit,” Dell’Osso said. “A lot of our new residents have expressed an interest in having their parents move here.”

It is part of a trend that — when proposed projects, developments underway, and existing neighborhoods are all taken into account — would give Manteca-Lathrop nearly 5,500 age-restricted housing units. When all are built and occupied it would reflect more than 10,000 people residing in neighborhoods restricted where one spouse is older than 50 or 55. 

Such a concentration of active retired or older working residents is considered an economic juggernaut for local economies. During the Great Recession Del Webb residents  who tend to be better positioned for retirement than most or who were still working but have more disposable income as they have no children at home received credit for helping a lot of Manteca-based services, dining options, and retail to be able to weather the downtown.

It also could help pump up health services — especially specialty medicine — that thrive with a larger population base of seniors.

While Del Webb’s Manteca location north of Lathrop Road is built out Manteca’s third age-restricted community with traditional free-standing single family homes will include a 9,000-square-foot clubhouse and an expanded central park is moving closer to selling its first home.

Trumark Homes is doing the final prep work to allow the firm to develop the 492-home TruLiving at Manteca along East Louise Avenue just west of Cottage Way.

It will join Camellia Gardens off of Yosemite Avenue east of the Highway 99 freeway and the recently completed 1,406-home Del Webb at Woodbridge as age-restricted neighborhoods in Manteca. TruLiving is designed for those 55 years and older. There are several mobile home parks in Manteca that are also age-restricted.

Trumark plans to build all single story homes except for one or two floor plans that may have an optional bonus space on a small second floor. All homes will have the primary bedroom on the first floor.

With the switch to an age-restricted neighborhood, they are seeking modifications to previously approved setbacks and lot coverages.

Their goal is to “provide the best single-living floor plans without adjusting lot sizes.”

Floor plans would range from 1,502 to 2,984 square feet.  The larger number is on those plans with an optional second floor that will include a bedroom and a bathroom. That 

TruLiving will also be a gated community like Camellia Gardens and unlike Del Webb.

The Trumark project also included the building of a roundabout with two lanes of traffic in each direction on Louise Avenue where it intersects with Felice Way.

Developers are also working at putting together an additional age-restricted neighborhood in North Manteca.

To contract Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com