River Islands at Lathrop is working on a plan that will establish the planned community covering 4,800 acres as the leading example of smart growth in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.
It involves creating three high density developments with a strong mixture of retail, restaurants and services built around key hubs in the community that ultimately will be home to 40,000 people or almost half the current population of Manteca.
Each of the three “villages” will have between 1,000 and 1,500 housing units in the form of apartments and condos of which a number will be on the second floor above stores and restaurants.
They include:
*a transit village built around a station planned for the Valley Link that
initially will run commuter train service from Lathrop at a point on the Sharpe
Depot site where it will connect with Altamont Corridor Express trains to
Dublin-Pleasanton where it will connect with BART trains.
*a town square near the soccer fields and baseball diamonds along River Islands Parkway.
*an intense retail area by the River Islands High breaking ground in 2022 where a joint use community theatre arts center will be built along the future extension of Golden Valley Parkway.
River Islands Project Manager Susan Dell’Osso noted the various villages will be designed as places where people can live, shop, dine, “play”, and even work. The transit village is within easy walking distance of much of the 350-acre business park being pursued that will have office style tenants. The other two locations are within easy walking distance of nearby single family neighborhoods. All three are connected by dozens of miles of pedestrian and bicycle pathways.
The village concepts will be submitted to the City of Lathrop for consideration next year as amendments to the development plans for the project. It will increase the number of housing units by roughly 3,000 to make the overall number that will be built 14,000.
The River Islands transit village on roughly four acres would also have a public gathering area.
Unlike other transit villages being pursued or in various stages of development throughout the Bay Area and Sacramento, a River Islands project would literally be from scratch as it would entail using raw land.
It also would have another feature that can’t be matched by any existing transit village in California: It would be on the door step of a planned 350-acre business park that could ultimately generate 16,800 jobs.
ACE project to Ceres
is moving forward
The Valley Link project is in addition to efforts now underway to extend Altamont Corridor Express service south to Ceres by 2023 and ultimately to Modesto using money the California Legislature set aside as part of the gas tax hike deal. The ACE extension will bring rail service to downtown Manteca Ripon and Modesto as well as Ceres in the first phase. Ultimately ACE stops would be added in Turlock, Atwater and Merced.
The rail connection of BART and ACE — the purpose of created by Assembly Bill 758 — will feature either diesel or electric multiple unit technology.
Within Tracy the Valley Link system will utilize Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way. The trains will travel through the Altamont Pass on the historic Transcontinental Railroad right-of-way that’s now owned by Alameda County. It would then connect to BART by traveling down the Interstate 580 median.
Beyond providing a much sought after commuter link by many who live in the 209 and work in areas served by BART between Dublin/Pleasanton and San Francisco, the BART to ACE link would also connect 500 miles of commuter and intercity rail lines with more than 130 stations in the Northern California metroplex.
It would ultimately be feasible to catch a train in Merced and — with connections that are station-to-station or very short shuttle runs — travel to downtown San Francisco, downtown San Jose, San Francisco International Airport, Stockton, Sacramento, Lawrence Livermore Lab, Levi’s Stadium, and the Oakland Coliseum among other destinations.
You could step on a train in downtown Manteca, Lathrop-Manteca, Ripon or River Islands to access that 500-mile network that includes 130 stations making mass transit a viable alternative to commute to jobs, travel to reach entertainment venues, shop, attend school, and other purposes.
Agencies involved with the Tri Valley-San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority are the cities of Manteca, Lathrop, Stockton, Tracy, Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin and San Ramon, the Town of Danville, Mountain House Community Services District, San Joaquin and alameda counties, Livermore Amador Transit Authority, BART, and the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission (ACE).
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
