The Pacific Motel — built in the days when Highway 99 went down Moffat Boulevard and swung up north on Main Street before the freeway opened in 1955 — is being torn down.
A San Joaquin County Superior Court judge sided with Manteca Unified School District’s eminent domain filing to acquire the site at 453 Moffat Boulevard that is contiguous with the Manteca High campus.
The district is expected to take possession of the motel early this summer. The plan is to raze it before the start of school.
The site will then be added to the student parking lot to provide about 60 more parking spaces.
It is part of a modernization and expansion plan for the campus to be able to accommodate 2,200 students. The enrollment is currently at 1,800 students. The campus is being expanded with classrooms to allow it to go from its current design capacity of 1,737 students to 2,200 students.
The district a few years back purchased the corner parcel at Sherman and Moffat to the west of the Pacific Motel. Part of that parcel has been converted into the new location for the campus trash compactor and garbage bins in a fenced off area as well as additional parking.
Not only does the purchase provide additional space for the high school but it helps strengthen campus security.
The initial options the district looked at a few years back was to relocate to an entire new campus. The cost of doing so — well in excess of $140 million to replicate the needed facilities at the 102-year-old campus — was determined to be cost prohibitive.
That is why the district opted to modernize and expand the existing campus.
A $41 million plus project is now underway to partially accomplish the goal. It includes building a gym for 2,200 students — almost three times the capacity of the existing main gym — as well as a swimming pool that meets today’s competitive high school standards.
To address traffic flow, safety, and security issues the front of the campus is being re-orientated to Moffat.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
