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Manteca may add 2nd sewer application date
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What a difference 13 years make.

Back in 1999 some 13 developers with projects containing more than 1,700 building lots were slugging it out for about 650 annual sewer allocations being awarded by the City of Manteca. To avoid suing each other they agreed to enter development agreements and started bonus buck payments to the city that generated well over $30 million in windfall  municipal revenue in exchange for sewer allocation certainty over multiple years.

This year no one applied in March as required under the growth management ordinance for any of the 900 available allocations set aside for this year. March is the only time requests can be made for sewer allocations that aren’t addressed in development agreements.

The City Council on Tuesday is being asked to amend that ordinance by adding a second time of the year - October - when builders can request sewer allocations.

Manteca has not entered into development agreements with the most recently approved residential projects. The builders have the option to apply for allocations through the growth management ordinance.

Also, the Community Development Department has received a quest for 16 sewer allocations for the remaining 16 lots in the 24-lot Westport Plaza subdivisions north of Daniels Street between Airport Way and Fishback Road. The project was approved in 2004 and a development agreement approved in 2005. The developer built on 8 of the 24 lots prior to the expiration of the development agreement in 2008. A builder wants to buy the finished lots to construct homes but they do not have sewer allocations attached to them. Under current rules, the buyer would have to wait until March of 2013 to acquire sewer allocations.

Staff is suggesting it would be more equitable to add a second application date during the course of a year hence the proposal to add October as a time when applications would also be considered.

That would accommodate Westport’s buyer that wants to start building before the end of the current year.

The council meets at 7 p.m. at the Civic Center council chambers, 1001 W. Center St.