The Manteca Planning Commission — for the first time in decades — has  a majority of members that weren’t serving just a year before.

The City Council last week appointed Eric Hayes, Ron Laffranchi, David Mendoza and Celeste Fiore to join Judith Blumhorst as commissioners. Ken Harvey was appointed as an alternative.

While Blumhorst and Fiore were already serving, they were appointed to short-terms nine months ago in May to fill vacancies. At the same time Mendoza was appointed as well, but as an alternate.

Hayes had served as a planning commissioner for two decades before stepping down in December 2020.

Laffranchi has been a commissioner for four years before being appointed to a second four-year term last week. He served two years as an alternate prior to that.

The new planning commission that meets for the first time Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Civic Center council chambers represents the first time that four of its members were appointed by individual council members with the concurrence of the council. The fifth member and alternate were appointed by the mayor with council approval.

When the city switched to district elections last year, it was decided to change how commission members were appointed as well.

The move was designed to try and get a commission that was more representative of the community at least on a geographic basis.

There are four council districts. While each council member was given the power to nominate the person to fill the term that corresponded with their term, it still required a majority council vote.

The idea was the council member nominate an applicant that aligned with their concerns as well as district although residency within the specific council district was not an absolute.

The commission, while it does not set policy, can help shape development to a degree.

The basic function is to make sure proposed developments comply with city and state rules as well as guidelines established in the municipal general plan.

That said, the commission has proven effective over the years helping tweak a number  of projects to avoid creating neighborhood or traffic issue that they determined were not sufficiently addressed by the applicant, staff or consultants.

The commission can be viewed as the citizen-based body in Manteca that has the second most impact on shaping Manteca after the City Council.  

In recent years, the commission has become a springboard to the City Council.

Three of the current council members — Mayor Gary Singh as well as Mike Morowit and Jose Nuno — served on the planning  commission before getting elected to the council.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com