The extension of Intermodal Way — a street critical to avoid future industrial development from creating as many as 1,000 truck trips a day past residential neighborhoods along Airport Way — will be built.

The Manteca City Council Tuesday approved a deal hammered out with CenterPoint Properties. It requires the extension of Intermodal Way be completed by the end of 2022 or else a surety bond be posted for its completion. At the same time occupancy permits will not be granted for new buildings in the area of the CenterPoint masterplan the road extension would serve if the extension is not completed.

Whether the roadway would be built before additional distribution centers and or a massive truck parking facility was put in place became a lightning rod for community opposition. Two petitions signed by more roughly 3,000 residents were presented to the council twice in recent years when CenterPoint asked to proceed with development before the road was in.

The signatures of the petition feared that allowing CenterPoint to “temporarily” access Airport Way north of Lathrop Road and south of Daisywood Avenue — the western entrance to the Del Webb at Woodbridge neighborhood — would eliminate any leverage the city had for the Intermodal Way extension to be completed.

Not only would a “temporary” road to Airport Way have resulted in a large jump of truck traffic on Airport Way but it would have entered the north-south arterial between signalized intersections at Lathrop Road and Daisywood.

CenterPoint has in the past submitted plans for a 486-space truck parking facility in the area the road extension would serve as well as for a 280,983-square-foot beverage distribution center.

In order to build the road CenterPoint needs to acquire property from the Union Pacific Railroad that operates an intermodal facility west of the tracks.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com