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More of the same seen for housing in growth proposal
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No radical departure from Manteca’s current housing development patterns are featured in the “preferred” land use map alternative a citizens’ advisory committee has fashioned to guide Manteca’s development through at least 2030.

The general plan advisory committee will meet Monday at 6 p.m. at the Manteca Transit Center, 220 Moffat Blvd. On the agenda is conformation of the land use plan for Manteca that they want to recommend to the Planning Commission and ultimately the City Council to adopt.

It increases opportunities for distribution centers and employment centers while at the same time kicks up land set aside for housing.

The preferred land use map that encompasses developed areas as well as land either now and zoned and approved for development will go from 10,967 acres currently devoted to housing to 12,175 acres.

That includes taking land dedicated for:

high density (apartments) from 429 to 449 acres.

medium density (townhouses and smaller single family lots) from 376 to 569 acres.

low density (typical single family lot sizes that dominated Manteca’s housing landscape from 8,592 to 9,605 acres.

Very low density (larger lots for single family homes) down to 1,553 acres to 1,570.

The preferred land use also:

eliminates 238 acres zoned for heavy industrial and 65 acres for business/industrial/professional use in the 1,040-acre Austin Road Business Park annexation and designates the land primarily for more housing.

transforms the area sandwiched between Airport Way on the east and the Union Pacific Railroad on the west between Roth Road and Yosemite Avenue into an industrial area four times larger than the business park portion of Spreckels Park. 

creates a heavy industrial zone on the southeast corner of the Highway 99 and French Camp interchange stretching east to a point midway between Castle and Austin road.

establishes zoning of agricultural industrial on the southwest corner of the French Camp Road and Highway 99 interchange to protect Delicato Vineyards — one of the nation’s largest wineries — that provides nearly 400 fairly well paid year-round jobs.

zones on all quadrants of the Lathrop interchange on Highway 99 that would encourage commercial development. 

creates a separate zoning for downtown and enlarges the area significantly. It would extend to Sheridan Avenue on the east, would go to the south to Moffat along Sherman Avenue, and to North Street to the north except along Sycamore, Main, and Grant where it would go to Alameda Street. It would also spill over to the east side of the railroad tracks and take in Oak Street.

zoning for commercial between the 120 Bypass and Atherton Drive from Moffat Boulevard on the east and Orchard Valley on the west. It includes segments of commercial mixed use that would allow apartments to be built on the existing Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley site as well as 450 apartments immediately to the east of the Bass Pro Shops. Similar high density and commercial mixed used also is shown for the area east of Main Street, south of the 120 Bypass, north of Atherton Drive, and west of the Paseo Villas apartments.

The French Camp Road/Highway 99 industrial area includes primarily farmland with a heathy clustering of small rural parcels with homes along Castle Road.

The French Camp industrial zoning would eliminate distribution center truck traffic going to and from the freeway from having to pass through commercial areas as it now does to serve concerns in Spreckels Park and along the Austin Road corridor.

The French Camp Road area is not in Manteca’s city limits but it is within its sphere of influence meaning that it is highly likely to eventually be annexed to the city. And although movement toward such a development that would require annexation may not happen in 20 years, it also means it can happen.


Austin Business Park

zoning change would

create more housing

The dropping of zoning for heavy industry and business park in the Austin Road project is a nod to difficulties in getting trucks to and from the area zoned for such use in the extreme southeast corner of Manteca and weaving it into the highly congested Austin Road and 120 Bypass interchanges on Highway 99.

In changing the zoning, the city would be “guilty” of what some opponents of the Austin Road Business Park as it was being proposed for annexation accused them of — creating a Trojan horse for more housing. It would also put additional pressure on Ripon Unified schools given the area that could be changed from heavy industry and business park uses to housing is within that school district’s boundaries.

The proposed land use that includes more muscular industrial along the Airport Way corridor and the French Camp/Highway 99 industrial designation reflects concerns the previous council had about  Amazon, United Parcel Service, and a multitude of other firms seeking to site distribution centers and other business park style operations in San Joaquin County to serve the Northern California Megaregion — the richest regional economy in the country that surrounds the San Francisco Bay — were bypassing Manteca.

Ultimately if the land uses depicted eventually are developed it will reduce the number of acres devoted to agriculture in the Manteca general plan area from 5,677 to 4,540 acres.


To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com