Manteca’s first four-story apartment building is being pursued in an area that for years has been a patchwork collection of vacant land and rural-style houses on quarter acre and larger parcels.

It’s part of a vision of big changes for a portion of the Airport Way corridor — specifically between Wawona and Center streets — that is lined with more than 50 smaller parcels, many that have homes on them.

The envisioned changes are what Manteca leaders adopted in a general plan update that serves as a blueprint for municipal growth.

Generally, it calls for the transformation of an area roughly a quarter-mile deep on both the east and west of Airport Way into high density residential intermixed with commercial.

The concept was adopted three years ago by elected officials.

Now many of those same council members are dealing with the reality of how to proceed given neighbors of the apartment complex — the first project that could advance under that vision — is a neighbor that some nearby residents don’t want. And that neighbor happens to be 59 feet, the tallest apartment complex ever proposed in Manteca

The objections and concerns expressed by several neighbors are fairly basic. They:

*don’t want people looking down into their backyards.

*question whether one access for fire service is adequate for a 44-unit complex likely to have 100 plus residents.

*worry about water well contamination.

*aren’t thrilled Manteca Unified’s request that the developer joins a community facilities district to help further offset the cost of housing future students the apartments will generate is not being honored.

*in so many words, are irked the semi-rural lifestyle that attracted them to the area decades ago is disappearing.

Councilman Charlie Halford, who represents District 1 where the project is planned from three parcels cobbled together to create a 1.67 acre site with an access point aligning with the Boxcar Drive intersection with Wawona Street, understands the frustration of neighbors.

Halford said he wouldn’t like to have a project next door to his home where people could look into his backyard 24/7.

The councilman noted the mitigation — landscaping with trees selected due to their tendency to grow high — won’t likely be effective for 10 years after they are planted.

Water concerns aren’t as dire as they may seem to neighbors.

The apartments will use city water and sewer meaning the existing well will be abandoned and no septic system will be put in place.

A properly engineered system to drain storm water won’t impact neighbors.

Expressed worries about possible contamination such as oil leaking from equipment during construction is addressed by rigorous state mandated mitigations that — even without those being required — would likely have no bigger impact than semi-trucks now parked on the land when it comes to oil leaking.

As for the school mitigation, the developer wants to pay higher upfront fees to the Manteca Unified to avoid an accumulative 30-year CFD tab that could exceed $1 million.

Either option meets state requirements.

Unlike developers of tract homes that can shift the cost of the CFD fees to buyers once new homes close escrow, the apartment complex owners are on the hook for them for 30 years.

It underscores the reality of small-scale developers tackling an identified transformation of an area of the city that large scale developers avoid due to the absence of large parcels.

It is that reality that reflects the biggest challenge for city leaders that want to see the vision they adopted for the area actually happen.

That vision also happens to address the generation of moderate to above moderate housing mandated by the state that Manteca needs to get built to meet quotas basically imposed by Sacramento.

The 44-unit apartment complex is the first of what promises to create vexing issues for the current and future councils that not only have potential political ramifications but could expose the city to litigation from Sacramento as is happening in other California cities perceived to have rejected high density projects due to NIMBYism pushback.

State regulations aimed at addressing the much ballyhooed California housing shortage basically takes not-in-my-backyard arguments off the table in justifying the rejection of housing project.

The future of Airport Way corridor

A proposal to repurpose the land on the southwest corner of Airport Way and Yosemite Avenue is also likely to generate pushback that it would change the semi-rural character of the area.

So will a combined apartment/retail complex several hundred yards to the west of Airport Way and south of Yosemite Avenue.

The same is true of the 92-unit Center Pointe apartment complex approved south of the Center Street extension and borders other rural estates.

The Airport Way segment in question is being “hemmed” in on its northern border by 114 “paired homes” — basically a modern take on duplexes — that are now under construction and being leased by Kiper Homes.

Just down the street on Wawona at the intersection with Airport Way, an apartment complex of 200-units was proposed but then the application yanked. Eventually that land will develop as apartments.

Overall, on the Airport Way corridor through Manteca from Lovelace Road in the north to just beyond Woodward Avenue in the south, there are 3,596 housing units approved with some under construction currently.

Using the City of Manteca average of 3.11 people per housing units, those 3,596 homes have the potential to add 11,183 residents to the city’s population.

All of that is in addition to a pending city project to underground power lines between Center Street and Wawona Street to widen that segment of Airport Way to four lanes.

The council on Tuesday delayed taking action on the proposed apartments until Sept. 1 to give the developer time to see if they can better address concerns brought up by residents.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com