LATHROP — One of Lathrop’s biggest eyesores is about to get an overhaul. 

Last week the Lathrop City Council voted to approve a zoning amendment that will allow for the cluster of abandoned apartments on O Street to move forward with a renovation that has been years in the making. 

And it’s more than just a facelift. 

According to the staff report, concerned residents earlier this month let the Lathrop Planning Commission know that not only were the apartments – which have been shuttered for nearly a decade – unsightly, but they were also a hub for illegal activity and drug use. 

Originally built in the 1970’s, the O Street Apartments – six four-plex units that were built alongside the street that runs along the side of Lathrop Elementary School – fell into disrepair and by the early 2000s, had amassed a number of code violations and infractions that eventually led their shuttering almost a decade ago. Since then, they have sat abandoned – boarded up and desolate. 

According to the application that was submitted to the City of Lathrop, the applicant is requesting to completely transform the outside façade of the building as well as provide new kitchen cabinets, counter tops, appliances, bathrooms, doors and windows in addition to new interior and exterior paint, new stucco and exterior decorative shutters that will drastically alter the way that the dated exterior looks in relation to the single family homes nearby (a pitched roof, for example, instead of the flat roof that the buildings currently include). 

Because the project is simply an overhaul of an existing building as opposed to new construction, the applicant won’t have to provide any mitigation to the Manteca Unified School District unless more than 500 square-feet of living space is added to the project. 

Both the Lathrop Planning Commission and the Lathrop City Staff recommended approval for the project. 

Since providing low and market-rate rental housing is a component of the housing element of the city’s existing general plan, the project’s approval – which will still require additional votes at future meetings to become official – helps the city fulfill an outstanding goal. It also satisfies the requirement of another stated goal to “preserve, rehabilitate, and enhance existing housing and neighborhoods.”

The project applicant, who has already purchased the property, has already taken the steps to clean up the trash from the lot as well as remove the broken or vandalized appliances in preparation for the construction renovation. 

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.