The Sierra Club contends the City of Manteca’s proposed general plan update is woefully inadequate when it comes to addressing air quality.

That’s because development patterns in the land use update portion is designed to allow for a proliferation of mega-distribution centers in Manteca.

Manteca is part of the San Joaquin Valley air basin. Federal agencies noted last year the San Joaquin Valley has the second worst regional air quality in the nation in several categories.

And while air quality may not be as bad in San Joaquin County as it is heading farther south into the valley, winds often push what pollution is generated in the northern part of the valley southward.

It is then trapped by the Sierra, Tehachapi, and Coastal ranges. As a result, cities such as Bakersfield and Fresno consistently suffer from some of the worst air quality in the nation.

The Sierra Club’s Delta-Sierra Group believes Manteca has an obligation under state law to include in the general plan solutions similar to one that the local chapter hammered out with the City of Stockton for the Mariposa Business Park.

That business park will have 4.6 million acre feet of warehouse space, 1,831 auto parking spaces, and 1,107 truck and trailer spaces.

The Manteca general plan has several areas where such a large business park can be developed including in the southeast quadrant of French Camp Road and Highway 99 and along Austin Road to the southeast of existing neighborhoods around Woodward Park.

The Sierra Club contends proposed general plan policies and measures illegally defer the update of the City’s Climate Action Plan and the adoption of a so-called “Good Neighbor Guidelines for Warehouse Distribution Facilities” ordinance to a future date.

The requirements of such a warehouse ordinance would include:

*Preparation of a Health Risk Assessment for all projects proposed within 1,000 feet of existing or planned residential uses or other sensitive receptors.

*The requirement that every project include sufficient solar panels to provide power for on-site operations. 

*Adopted standards to require electric charging facilities sufficient to charge all electric trucks that use the project site.

*Requiring all heavy duty trucks to be zero emission in the future.

The Sierra Club chapter has indicated “Perhaps the most gaping flaws in the (draft) EIR involve deficiencies in the air quality, public health, and related greenhouse gas emissions analyses. The failure to analyze these impacts is especially striking since the City of Manteca and the surrounding San Joaquin Valley has some of the most polluted air and accounts for the second worst air quality region in the United States.”

The Sierra Club notes the current population of Manteca is 89,835. 

The proposed general plan will accommodate a 141 percent growth of population to an estimated population of 211,003. That would more than double the current size of Manteca.

Such growth would require over 38,000 additional housing units.

The majority of housing growth called for in the general plan update is outside the existing city limits and in the urban reserves is essentially more low density sprawl development. 

The Sierra Club takes the draft  EIR analysis to task for failing to discuss and offering mitigation for a scenario where less employment growth occurs and housing growth continues unabated.

“What happens if 80% of the housing growth occurs over the next 30 years but only 40 or 50% of the job development happens?” the Sierra Club asks. “If the City faces a more serious jobs/housing imbalance in the interim period before full buildout, several key environmental impacts will be exacerbated such as traffic and air emissions.”

The Sierra Club goes on to note the general plan updated designates “urban reserves” for 1,630 acres of additional housing growth and 996 acres of business park and industrial development yet does not analyze the impacts of development of such reserves.

Concerns about advancing a growth blueprint that could further deteriorate air quality is among a number of  comments the Delta-Sierra Group has submitted regarding the draft reticulated environmental impact report for the city’s general plan update

One example, as pointed out by the Sierra Club, are 37 separate impact findings have been changed from “potentially significant” in the original draft environmental impact report to “less than significant” in the update. 

The Sierra Club said the current draft EIR “must explain in detail” why so many critical significance findings were changed.. 

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com