Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

I spoke at hearings for the Woodbridge Apartment Project in 2014, 2015, and 2016. I told the Planning Commissioners that the Manteca Unified School District had not been notified of the impacts of School buses blocking truck traffic on Lathrop Road loading and unloading children. Also there is no neighborhood school in this area because the City did not have the Union Ranch developer designate a large enough lot of land to build a school. The Commissioners passed the item anyway. I meet with Walt Brookshire director of transportation about this problem of the City not giving MUSD proper notification. He was very upset and told me he would be contacting the Planning Department.

I attended a City Council in 2015 to complain that I would like them not to pass the item until MUSD had an opportunity to have input. Because of the fact the City charges a fee of $2,052 to appeal the Commissioners decision, they passed the site approval. I called every city in San Joaquin County to inquire what they charged to appeal.  The average was $350.  San Francisco waives the fee for citizens groups. How can the City of Manteca set the appeal fee out of reach of most citizens and ignore impacts that must be mitigated?

Once again, the city staff failed to properly notification the MUSD for their comments for the site approval for the Luxury Apartment Project  I am pleased the MUSD forced the City to pull item 6.1 and give them the opportunity to better plan our city.

Manteca

Mary Meninga