The Community Development Department has posted the initial study for a mitigated negative declaration for the first commercial shopping center in southwest Manteca.

And it includes a gas station that at least 700 people that signed petitions say they don’t want built.

The ARCO station with convenience store is part of a 4.67 neighborhood commercial center proposed for the southeast corner of Pillsbury Road at Woodward Avenue.

It has three phases. Two that are going through the city’s process for entitlements and a third parcel that could accommodate up to a 12,000 square-foot parcel under the zoning assigned to the land.

The impacts are addressed in the study that went up on the city website Friday.

The first phase includes a fueling station with a convenience store and quick-serve restaurant in a 7,600-square foot building.

The fueling station would have eight multi-product dispensers installed in the northwestern section of the project site. Each dispenser would have a fueling position on each side, for a total of 16 fueling positions.

Fuel for the dispensers would come from two underground fuel tanks, each with a capacity of 20,000 gallons of fuel. One tank would store gasoline only; the other would hold 12,000 gallons of gasoline and 8,000 gallons of diesel fuel.

The second phase involves a 9,045 square foot commercial building.

Two outdoor pavilion areas and additional landscaping are proposed.

Access would be provided off Pillsbury Road and Woodward Avenue, with improvements made to an existing left-turn pocket on Woodward Avenue at its intersection with Pillsbury Road.

The median would effectively restrict the drive way on Woodward to right turns in and right turns out.

In May of 2025, nearby residents attended a council meeting with 12 of them speaking out against the proposed gas station.

They indicated at the time petitions they were circulating had in excess of 700 signatures.

The speakers slammed the project as a bad fit for their neighborhood.

They expressed concern it would:

*increase noise.

*devalue their homes by as much as 55%.

*create safety hazards by increasing traffic.

*create health issues related to fuel polluting the air.

*encourage criminal activity from loitering on up.

*generate excessive light at night in a residential area.

One safety concern was tied into the fact the location is basically roughly three blocks east of Woodward Park.

As such, it could encourage youngsters and others using the park that wanted a snack or drinks to walk along Woodward Avenue that has no sidewalks between the park and Pillsbury Road on the south side of the street.

They also said it was bad planning, asserting no other neighborhoods in Manteca have gas stations as close to residential areas as what is proposed at Pillsbury and Woodward.

The city actually has at least seven gas stations that back up to housing that are almost all significantly closer to homes than the one proposed on Woodward Avenue.

The newest, Rotten Robbie’s on Airport Way at Wawona, backs up to housing.

Neighbors objected to that project citing many of the same reasons.

The six others include two on East Yosemite Avenue, one on West Yosemite Avenue, one on South Main Street, one on North Main Street, and one on Moffat Boulevard.

They also argued Manteca — with more than 30 gas stations and five more approved but yet to be built — doesn’t need any more gas stations.

That sentiment is why municipal staff — at the direction of the City Council made in December — is currently exploring gas station moratorium options expected to be presented to elected officials for consideration in the next few months.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com