A strategy aimed at Manteca snagging a bigger share of the robust demand for distribution centers could see major heavy industrial development on the southeast quadrant of the Highway 99 and French Camp Road interchange.

It also would zone almost everything west of Airport Way to the railroad tracks and between Yosemite Avenue and Roth Road for heavy industrial and business industrial park. At the same time it would virtually eliminate plans for the much ballyhooed Austin Road Business Park in southeast Manteca. 

It is one of two primary strategies being floated for land use for incorporation into Manteca’s 20-year blueprint for growth. Two land use maps — one drawn to encourage economic growth and job development and the other a more balanced growth that would encourage more housing — are being pondered by the citizens committee that is helping cobble together an update for the general. The planning document mandated by the state will eventually be presented to the City Council for possible adoption. 

The French Camp/Highway 99 and Airport Way corridor changes are incorporated in a land use map known as Alternate “A” that is dubbed “Economic Growth and Employment Focused Development.

Alternate “A” involves: 

creating a heavy industrial zone on the southeast corner of the Highway 99 and French Camp interchange stretching east to a point midway between Castle and Austin roads along French Camp Road and south to a point midway between Northland Road and French Camp Road along the Highway 99 Frontage Road.

eliminating 238 acres zoned for heavy industrial and 65 acres for business/industrial/professional use in the 1,040-acre Austin Road Business Park annexation and designating the land primarily for more housing.

transforming the area sandwiched between Airport Way on the east and the Union Pacific Railroad on the west between Roth Road and Yosemite Avenue into an industrial area four times larger than the business park portion of Spreckels Park.

a more robust zoning of agricultural industrial on the southwest corner of the French Camp Road and Highway 99 interchange to protect Delicato Vineyards — one of the nation’s largest wineries — that provides nearly 400 fairly well paid year-round jobs.

zoning on all quadrants of the Lathrop interchange on Highway 99 that would encourage robust reginal commercial development.

creates a separate zoning for downtown and enlarges the area significantly. It would extend to Sheridan Avenue on the east, would go to the south to Moffat along Sherman Avenue, and to North Street to the north except along Sycamore, Main, and Grant where it would go to Alameda Street. It would also spill over to the east side of the railroad tracks and take in Oak Street.

zoning for regional commercial between the 120 Bypass and Atherton Drive from Moffat Boulevard on the east and Orchard Valley on the west.

French Camp Road

site is now farming

& rural residential

The last item underlines on how much of what general plan consultants do is color maps without an understanding of what is already in place. For example, over a third of the area that the consultant sees as potential regional commercial along the 120 Bypass has more than 600 apartment units either built or under construction. A sizeable chunk of the area the alternate land use map calls for regional commercial that is adjacent to Orchard Valley is where developers are pursing the building of another 400 apartment units.

The French Camp Road/Highway 99 industrial area includes primarily farmland with a heathy clustering of small rural parcels with homes along Castle Road.

The French Camp industrial zoning would eliminate distribution center truck traffic going to and from the freeway from having to pass through commercial areas as it now does to serve concerns in Spreckels Park and along the Austin Road corridor.

The French Camp Road area is not in Manteca’s city limits but it is within its sphere of influence meaning that it is highly likely to eventually be annexed to the city. And although movement toward such a development that would require annexation may not happen in 20 years, it also means it can happen.

That’s what rural South Manteca residents came to realize after being told in 2006 by the city that the proposed Raymus Expressway would not even be a serious issue of discussion until 2030 or later. Within five years the city was approving residential development with set aside corridors for the road to be built that has virtually preordained where Raymus Expressway will go. In other words, the first step toward opposing future development is the same first step of pushing for development — adoption of a general plan or an update.

It doesn’t mean growth as dictated by zoning reflected in different colors on a map will occur. What it does mean is it can occur.

The general plan can also be changed through amendments once it is adopted. That is what is happening with 239 acres zoned and approved for 1,014 homes on the southwest corner of Airport Way and Louise Avenue that is known as Villa Ticino West. Scannell Properties is seeking to scrap the housing and develop a business park instead.

Austin Business Park

zoning change would

create more housing

The dropping of zoning for heavy industry and business park in the Austin Road project is a nod to difficulties in getting trucks to and from the area zoned for such use in the extreme southeast corner of Manteca and weaving it into the highly congested Austin Road and 120 Bypass interchanges on Highway 99.

The proposal for the development of the overall project went to the wayside when the city six years ago let work slide on a development agreement even though the developer had paid the city to have it done.

In changing the zoning, the city would be “guilty” of what some opponents of the Austin Road Business Park as it was being proposed for annexation accused them of — creating a Trojan horse for more housing. It would also put additional pressure on Ripon Unified schools given the area that could be changed from heavy industry and business park uses to housing is within that school district’s boundaries.

Alternate “A” for possible land use reflects concerns the previous council had about  Amazon, United Parcel Service, and a multitude of other firms seeking to site distribution centers and other business park style operations in San Joaquin County to serve the Northern California Megaregion — the richest regional economy in the country that surrounds the San Francisco Bay — were bypassing Manteca.

Manteca last when it

comes to being able

to accommodate employment centers in SJ County

The San Joaquin Partnership provided the City Council earlier this year with brutally honest numbers.

Of 11 million square feet of existing industrial space in the county, only 212,000 square feet of 1.8 percent of the overall total is in Manteca. Ready-to-convert building shells are critical for firms that need to move or expand within months and not years.

Of the 16,176 acres countywide of vacant industrial land, only 844 acres— or 5.2 percent of that total is in Manteca. And more than half of that is part of the Austin Road Business Park that stalled, due in a large part, by the city’s inaction on a development agreement that caused the original partnership to disintegrate.

Not only does Manteca have limited office space, but there is no “Class A” space critical to snag Bay Area concerns looking for high profile offices that could soon join the exodus of distribution to San Joaquin County.

Of the available space for business park type employers inventorying existing space that is 5,000 square feet or larger at the time of the report Stockton had 52 percent of the overall total or 6.1 million square feet, Lathrop 18 percent or 2.1 million square feet, Tracy 12 percent or 1.4 million square feet, Lodi 10 percent, of 1.1 million square feet, unincorporated parts of the county 6 percent or 680,000 square feet, and Manteca 1.8 percent or 212,000 square feet.

As for existing, planned and future land set aside for industrial uses Manteca has one-seventh that of Stockton, just more than one-fifth of Tracy, under a half of Lathrop and even a third less than Ripon.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com