By DENNIS WYATT
The Bulletin
An access road to a 486-space truck parking lot in the extreme northwest corner of the city at first glance might not be a concern of most Mantecans except for those residing nearby in the 1,406-home Del Webb neighborhood and a handful of other residents.
But Bill Barnhardt knows better.
Barnhardt has been carefully monitoring the city’s actions and capitulations over the past 10 years as they slowly transform the once rural Airport Way corridor that Manteca allowed residential neighborhoods to be built flush up to its eastern flank. The transformation the city is aiming is to make the Airport Way a distribution center juggernaut to secure local jobs while expanding the municipal tax base.
That means more trucks.
Barnhardt and his neighbors aren’t objecting to more jobs or even more trucks per se. Their objection lies with the city not taking steps to prevent semi-trucks from going through Manteca wily-nilly instead of putting in measures — and enforcing them — to keep trucks on designated routes that are also designed to handle trucks.
The fact the developer is now seeking to get the city to renege on a previous requirement that would stop measures from being put in place to direct truck traffic away from Airport Way, Lathrop Road and other parts of the city is why the effort of Barnhardt and his neighbors have undertaken is akin to trying to plug a hole in a dike to prevent the city from being flooded with what traffic experts say will be at least 800 more daily truck trips from just one project.
Over two years ago when CenterPoint wanted to proceed with adding more distribution centers to 5.11 Tactical, Penske (the contract firm that handles Lowe’s logistics), and Amazon along with the 486-space truck parking yard, they wanted to dump the truck traffic onto Airport Way.
Originally when the idea of developing a business park on the southwest corner of Airport Way and Roth Road was advanced, the city wanted an internal road built to connect with a Roth Road and then Interstate 5.
Part of that private road known as Intermodal Way has been built. The city wants it extended southward to where it now dead ends by a 153 space truck parking yard to service the proposed 486 space truck parking yard.
But CenterPoint ran into issues with Union Pacific Railroad that owns land for part of the road’s right-of-way.
That is why when they went back to ask the city several years ago to allow them to move the massive parking yard forward. CenterPoint asked to connect a road to Airport Way instead.
Based alone on the traffic analysis that the truck yard on a daily basis would like have 800 truck trips going to and from it, the city recommended traffic signals at the proposed Airport Way Road connection.
In doing so it would have created three signalized intersections in rapid succession on Airport Way at Lathrop Road, the new road, and Daisywood much like they are today on East Yosemite at Northwoods/Commerce, Highway 99, and Button Avenue.
Nearby residents zeroed on the congestion as well as noise and air quality issues created when trucks are constantly braking to stop and accelerating from a stop.
Residents pushed back. More than 1,400 people signed a petition, the largest number since a move to severely slow growth in the mid-1980s and more than the petition that led to the successful recall of three council members several years earlier.
They wanted time restrictions on hours of operation if the road wasn’t built. The Manteca Planning Commission — over staff’s objections — agreed. Planning Commissioner Jeff Zellner noted at the time that the city had a dismal record of following through on requirements such as the road to explain his support for limiting hours of operation.
When it got to the council level, elected officials went a step further. The further reduced the allowed hours the planning commission had recommended.
The result was a project amendment dropping the new road connecting to Airport Way and requiring the extension of Intermodal Way to be put in place.
The issue resurfaced this month when CenterPoint wanted to proceed with the truck yard and other development on the promise they would keep trying to work with UP to get the internal road built.
That triggered another petition with hundreds of more than the 1,400 collected before demanding the city honor the agreement they imposed on CenterPoint. If the city honors the developer’s request it would have gutted the requirement aimed at addressing concerns of the residents.
Last week just a day before CenterPoint was to go before the Planning Commission to move the truck yard and additional business park structures forward simply on the promise they’d try to get the road in place, Community Development Services Chris Erias made it clear the city would not issue an occupancy permit for anything that was built until the road was on place.
That prompted CenterPoint to withdraw the agenda item.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
