Manteca’s leaders are one step closer to derailing a referendum from being placed on the Nov. 5 ballot on whether to overturn the city’s adopted general plan.

The Manteca Planning Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved the general plan update and accompanying amendment to environmental documents.

The changes are centered on land zoning, the Roth Road extension that includes a future Highway 99 interchange and the designation of a community park location in the area between Del Webb at Woodbridge and the Delicato winey north of Manteca.

Getting the changes in place — which requires final adoption by the City Council — is the linchpin of a deal ironed out between winery brass and elected city leaders.

That deal, assuming the actions outlined are done by mid-August, will mean Delicato will drop both the referendum as well as a lawsuit aimed at nullifying the general plan approved just seven months ago.

The major elements of the deal that was hammered away from the public’s eye after community input spanning nearly six years forged the general plan that is being amended includes the following:

*There will be no residential developments north of Lovelace Road.

*Housing development will not occur east of Union Road at a point beyond where the northern edge of the Del Webb at Woodbridge community.

*Delicato will provide up to 12 acres at no cost for an extension of Roth Road through their property so it can reach Frontage Road on the west side of Highway 99.

*The Roth Road extension through Delicato property will have a continuous sound wall on the northside — save for access gates for farm equipment — to provide a sound and visual barrier of winery operations.

*The city will work toward getting a Roth Road interchange along Highway 99 roughly midway between the existing French Camp Road and Lathrop Road interchanges.

*Existing plans for housing submitted to the city for consideration will be held in abeyance in terms of processing until general plan changes agreed upon regarding zoning changes are officially implemented.

*As such, that means the amount of housing Manteca will allow in the area will be reduced including the elimination of apartments.

*Land to the west and south of the winery will be placed in an agricultural zone. Land between Union Road and Airport Way farther to the west of the winery was already zoned for industrial use in the general plan update as well as land to the east of the winery on the other side of Highway 99.

*The winery operation per se will be in an agricultural industrial zone.

*The area once envisioned by developers for housing on the east side of Union Road north of Del Webb will instead have a 50-acre community park site plus industrial zoning.

*The park site that borders Union Road is designed with  a corridor that connects with a future extension of the Tidewater Bikeway. That means both of the city’s community parks — Woodward is the other — will be accessed directly by city’s separated bike trail system.

*The park’s design with the connection to the Tidewater could allow it to be ultimately doubled in size of industrial land to the east of it doesn’t develop.

*Delicato will pay $50,000 toward the initial design of the community park.

*The cost of Roth Road improvements will be determined and developers will establish funding for it before residential and industrial park growth occurs.

Delicato, in the agreement, will drop the referendum on the general plan that they gathered the necessary signatures to qualify for the Nov. 5, 2024 ballot providing all of the milestones outlined in the settlement agreement are met 88 days before the election. That is the last day at item can be submitted to the county elections office for placement on the ballot.

 The zoning changes are critical to what Delicato believes it needs to protect the future viability of its winery they have parlayed into the world’s fifth largest partially on the strength of a recent investments in excess of $100 million.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com