Back in the heady days of the first decade of the 21st century, developers were tripping all over each other with grandiose plans to turn the 120 Bypass into a corridor of high-rise office buildings.

They were banking on the exposure the corridor offered plus its proximity to the Bay Area.

In 2007, Oak Valley Community Bank rolled out a plan for a 6-story structure with 57,000 square feet on the southwest quadrant of the 120 Bypass/Highway 99 interchange  to serve as its headquarters. The city approved plans for the 96-foot high structure that also included a separate building for an upscale steakhouse in front of the office tower and facing Moffat Boulevard.

The plan went to the wayside when the mortgage crisis struck.

A year prior, the developers of the Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley unveiled plans for a second phase that included an 8-story hotel and two “twin towers” of 70 feet to accommodate five floors of office space east of Bass Pro Shops where the 428-unit Atherton apartment complex is now in the process of building its final phase.

The plans by Poag & McEwen never got beyond the conceptual stage.

It was against that backdrop in 2012 developers were granted approval for a series of five multi-story office buildings with 314,000 square feet lining Highway 99 and part of its interchange with the 120 Bypass.  

The project on the northeast quadrant of the interchange also included  414 condos plus 312 apartments, 158,200 square feet of retail, 335 single family homes, and 28 estate-style lots.

The Great Recession effectively killed the big office dreams of developers.

Yosemite Square, however, is being reincarnated without the commercial component, office buildings, apartments and condos. Now there are only single family homes being proposed — 814 of them.

It’s also been trimmed down from 217 acres to 137.2 acres.

The project is the largest subdivision ever proposed east of Highway 99 in Manteca and the first east of Highway 99 and south of Yosemite Avenue (East Highway 120).

Part of the subdivision will border the El Rancho Mobile Home Park on the north as well as be adjacent to ACT Trucking’s facilities. The  rest will border agricultural uses, several existing homes, Highway 99, and Austin Road.

The project has the potential of triggering additional growth.

That’s because it will put in place a 12-inch water main.

It will connect with a stub on Austin  Road just south of Yosemite Avenue. It would run south on Austin Road to a point just south of the northbound Highway 99 offramp. From there it will swing west and go under Highway 99 and connect with an existing 12-inch water line on Moffat Boulevard near Woodward Avenue.

There will be two access points to Yosemite Square via streets intersecting with Austin Road

The southern boundary is just south of where the ramp from northbound Highway 99 to the 120 Bypass starts crossing over Highway 99.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com