Manteca is getting affordable at-market housing near downtown.

Harmony Communities is developing a manufactured housing park on Moffat Boulevard on a parcel that borders both South Lincoln Avenue and a segment of Garfield Avenue.

The Stockton-based firm owns and operates 31 manufactured housing as well as mobile home parks including 29 in California and seven in San Joaquin County.

The homes are being advertised as being in the low $100,000s. Those that reserve homes will have the option of selecting finishes.

Mayor Gary Singh noted the investment by Harmony Communities means the central district will have additional housing that not only qualifies as affordable but is within walking distance to downtown dining and stores. It is also across the street from where ACE commuter trains will be stopping within the next few years.

It also will eliminate on going issues with people illegally living on the property.

The last time either a mobile home or manufactured housing park was built in Manteca was in 1971 when El Rancho opened a year after Almond Blossom Estates was built.

There is one other mobile home park in the city limits. It is on Moffat Boulevard backing up to the Manteca High football field.

The site where Harmony Communities is building was where the 21-space Shady Hollow Trailer Park was until 2013 when various issues forced its closure.

Since then – and until after the estate auction in January —  it has been the site of periodic squatting by the homeless.

Manteca had a fifth trailer/mobile home park until 20 years ago when the one in the 300 block of North Main was shuttered.

That site recently had a parcel along Maple Avenue sold where four homes are now being built.

Advocates for affordable at-market housing point to manufactured housing as a viable option as they are significantly easier to qualify for financing.

Since 2001, state has required cities to allow the option of manufactured homes to be placed in city lots. Manteca has several including one on Sutter Street.

They cost less to build than homes that are built on-site.

Even in a  park setting with space leases or rents, they are still more affordable than  conventional “stick built” housing.

That said, they still have negative biases to overcome based on older versions of trailer parks and even mobile home parks.

The biggest naysayers surprisingly are planning bureaucrats.

The was the case nine years ago at the start of Manteca’s general process when the city’s community development staff batted down a community suggestion as a non-starter to include zoning for manufactured housing parks in future areas the city likely would annex.

Two years ago, it was county planning staff that pushed back on the concept before the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors adopted polices making manufactured home parks possible.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com