If anyone thinks gas stations are going the way of the dinosaurs now that California is rolling toward a 2035 ban on any new fossil fuel powered vehicles being sold in the state, they’re certainly not the people investing in Manteca commercial ventures.
The Planning Commission Tuesday will consider plans for a 7-Eleven convenience store and fueling station on the northeast corner of Louise Avenue and Main Street. It’s where Taqueria La Estrella operated a Mexican restaurant since 2011 in the converted former Long John Silver’s fast food restaurant before relocating to a site several blocks to the south near the Waffle Café.
It is the second gas station in the planning process. The other is Rotten Robbie’s planned for the southeast corner of Airport Way and Wawona Street.
If both are built it will bring the number of fueling stations in Manteca to 26. Of those six would have been built since 2018.
The new fueling station would be within three quarters of a mile of an existing 7-Eleven and fueling station combo. It would also be the third new gas station along or near the North Main Street corridor effectively replacing two Valeros — one at Alameda and the other on the former extension of North Main as Frontage Road — and a Shell station at Louise and Main that have all been torn down during the past 14 years.
The proposed 7-Eleven will have a 3,010-square-foot store and six fuel pumps with a canopy facing Main Street.
A traffic study by Fehr and Peers indicated the project will have an insignificant impact on traffic even though that it will likely generate more traffic than the restaurant. Louise Avenue and North Main Street has the highest average daily traffic count in Manteca based on the last municipal staff conducted citywide traffic survey.
The traffic consultant did recommend putting in place right turn only directional paint on both access driveways — one on Main Street and the other on Louise Avenue.
Rotten Robbie — a Santa Clara-based fueling station and convenience store chain — wants to open its 35th location between the Mister Car Wash and Wawona Avenue along the Airport Way corridor.
The City of Manteca is now accepting public comments on a negative declaration for the project through Oct. 14.
The station is proposed for 2.02 acres. It will include 16 pumps including 4 diesel vehicle pumps, a 6,240-square-foot passenger vehicle canopy, and a 4,800-square-foot convenience store. The Robinson Oil Corporation plans to operate the Manteca location 24/7.
Rotten Robbie’s locations are primarily in the Bay Area with Lakeport the farthest north location. The closest Bay Area station to Manteca is in Livermore.
The pending ban on new gas or diesel powered vehicles in California 15 years from now will not impact the ability to sell or drive fossil-fuel powered vehicles that are on the road at the time the ban goes into effect.
Alternative fueling
sites are expanding
If you count supercharging stations as well as the city’s charging site at the transit center plus the compressed gas fueling station that is the byproduct of Manteca’s food waste to fuel program, Manteca has 30 “re-fueling stations”.
The city’s second Tesla supercharging station opened in the Target parking lot earlier this year. It joins the existing one at The Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley near Bass Pro Shops.
There are 20 cities in California with two Tesla Supercharging stations and three with more than two. Manteca is the only city between Bakersfield and Sacramento with two supercharging stations.
In a nod to the future, the 116,641 square-foot Living Spaces furniture showroom now under construction on Atherton Drive west of Union Road is being prewired for 56 charging stations within its 456-space parking lot.
An additional 371 mini
storage units planned
The planning commission on Tuesday will also consider a plan by DeArcos Self Storage to expand its North Main Street location just north of Northgate Drive with 17 buildings containing 371 self-storage units.
The buildings are planned on 4.53 acres that once served as part of the right of way for the flyover onramp for Highway 99 that was removed five years ago when the new Lathrop Road-Highway 99 interchange was built.
The planning commission meeting is livestreamed at 7 p.m. on the city’s website.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
