A San Joaquin County redistricting plan placing Manteca and Lathrop in the same supervisorial district has garnered the unanimous support of the Manteca City Council.

The council is sending a letter supporting the option known as “Map B” to the supervisors who will make a final decision next month.

Elected leaders on Tuesday liked the idea Lathrop and Manteca would be in the same district as they share common issues and concerns. By being in one district the two rapidly growing cities wouldn’t have their interests diluted in districts drawn up where the majority of the population is either in Stockton or Tracy-Mountain House.

Manteca, under the final maps the supervisors are considering, for the first time in 30 years won’t be split between two supervisorial districts regardless of the final decision.

Map B places all of the existing cities of Manteca and Lathrop in the same district (District 3) along with a large swath of the Delta. It also would include French Camp and rural north Manteca south of French Camp Road, and west of Highway 99.

Tracy, Mountain House, Ripon, Escalon, and rural south Manteca are in the same district (District 3).

Rural Manteca east of Highway 99 and north of Louise Avenue and north of East Highway 120 are combined with eastern San Joaquin County (District 4) that includes rural areas adjacent to Stockton as well as Lodi and northern San Joaquin County.

There are a number of advantages to Map B.

First and foremost it keeps natural and historic community associations in the same districts — Mountain House and Lathrop in District 5 and Manteca-Lathrop-Ripon along with Escalon in District 3.

Given that all districts grew but none as fast as the portions of districts in the South County that saw an increase of 50,000 residents between 2011 and 2020 it forced those redistricting to shift emphasis this time around to the Tracy-Lathrop-Manteca area

That reflects the fact Tracy and Manteca last year were tied for being the third fastest growing city in California among jurisdictions with 30,000 or more residents. Lathrop was the second fastest growing city in the state overall while Ripon was the sixth fastest growing among smaller jurisdictions. Mountain House, if it were incorporated, would have made the top 10 in terms of percentage of growth.

The Map B would place 151,997 people in District 3 and 157,226 in District 5.

District 3 anchored by Manteca-Lathrop-Ripon in the B map  would have 38.7 percent of its residents classified as Hispanic/Latino, 30.7 percent as white, 6.1 percent as Black or African American, 17.9 percent as Asian, 0.8 percent as Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander and 0.7 percent as some other race.

That compares to the proposed District 5 with Tracy and Mountain House with 37.7 percent Hispanic or Latino, 33.4 percent white, 5.1 percent Black or African American, 22 percent Asian, 0.7 percent Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander and 0.6 percent some other race.

Currently Manteca is divided by Yosemite Avenue with those to the north in District 3 and those to the south in District 5. Lathrop, prior to 2010, had all its population in District 3. Since then River Islands home building started and there are now 6,000 residents of that city living in District 5.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com