Panera Bread is before the Manteca Planning Commission Tuesday seeking approval of a 4,200-square-foot restaurant on East Yosemite Avenue.

The restaurant will be built on just under an acre immediately west of the Taqueria La Estrella restaurant in the shopping center anchored by Grocery Outlet.  It will have access to that shopping center’s parking lot as well as a yet to be developed parcel between the Panera Bread site and the old McDonald’s restaurant.  A new driveway accessing Yosemite Avenue will be constructed to serve Panera Breads and the remaining parcel fronting the street as well as anything that may develop behind them toward property owned by Doctors Hospital of Manteca.

Panera Bread will include an 800-square-foot outdoor dining areas plus a drive-thru window along with 42 parking spaces.  There are 102 seats planned inside the restaurant. The patio seating area will face Yosemite Avenue and will feature an extensively landscaped area between it and front parking spaces.

The building features a modern design with clean lines and natural materials. The exterior paint colors include earth tones with dark and light wood tile accents. Bronze aluminum awnings are included.

Panera Bread submitted plans to the city five months ago. The details of the project have since been hammered out by the developer and the city.

The commission during Tuesday’s 7 p.m. meeting at the Civic Center council chambers, 1001 W. Center St., will also consider a request for a four-lot tentative parcel map involving 223.7 acres. The land is to the west of existing McKinley Avenue and borders Brozan Road just south of the 120 Bypass on the north, Oakwood Shores on the west, and Woodward Avenue on the south.

The new parcels will range in size from 11.59 acres to 175 aces to allow development according to the general plan which includes homes and apartments.

The parcel map provides for a future extension of Atherton Drive and the realignment of McKinley Avenue.

McKinley Avenue will swing toward a segment of the alignment already in place to the east of the current McKinley Avenue. Atherton Drive will swing south through the 223.7 acres and eventually connect with Woodward Avenue as it does four miles to the east near Moffat Boulevard.

The city ultimately hopes to connect McKinley Avenue to a new six-lane overcrossing on Highway 99 midway between Ripon and Manteca by swinging it to the east. Before it connects with the interchange McKinley would cross a future extension of Atherton Drive south of Woodward Avenue near Moffat Boulevard where it will serve as the major street running through the 10,049-acre Austin Road Business Park.