Downtown Manteca - per se - is too fragmented in terms of property holdings to entice any major investor.
And it is doubtful that an RDA policy of buying up property when it is available and cobbling together enough land to resell to a developer would happen in a timely enough manner to prevent the heart of Manteca from becoming a black hole as the city grows toward the 100,000 population mark. If you think that such an approach would work take the history of the former gas station at the corner of Yosemite and Main that now serves as a parking lot. Private investors and the city have tried to buy it off and on for more than 30 years but the owner isn’t interested in selling.
There is, however, one rather large vacant parcel that might just have willing owners that could be interested in partnering with the redevelopment agency to do something bold that would serve as an economic linchpin of sorts.
To make it happen it would take out-of-the-box-thinking, chucking the old definition of downtown, combining the synergies of housing with retail, and a willingness to bend the rules a bit to make it work.
The parcel is the site of the old dilapidated trailer park in the 300 block of North Main Street that owners Eric Whole and Kevin Wentworth bought and removed with the goal of putting traditional retail on the front part of the parcel and fairly traditional housing on the back along Maple Avenue.
Why couldn’t the city allow, encourage and partner to create a project with commercial space along Main Street with two levels of housing above, a boutique-style community performing arts center seating less than 200 with accompanying space for an arts and recreation center , and additional housing with parking below in a three to four story configuration along Maple.
Some rules would have to be bent or ignored. For starters, there would only be adequate parking provided on site for residents.
The performing arts events would be at night or weekends when more on-street parking is available. Go down Maple and other streets within a block of the site on any given day and you’ll see plenty of parking spaces on the street. The street belongs to the public and not the adjoining property owner.
Handling a weekend crowd or evening crowd of 200 would be a walk in the park given how the street fair attracts upwards of 15,000 people a day and it does so by eliminating a lot of on-street parking and parking lot spaces to stage the event.
There is plenty of available space nearby to entice entrepreneurs to open restaurants or niche shopping catering to those who want to invest their leisure time doing both dining and shopping as opposed to hitting the supermarket or Target to stock up for the week.
Such a project’s location could spill back toward what historically has been known as downtown as well along the two-lane North Main corridor that also is in need of private sector investment. If you don’t think this is critical, should Blockbuster pull the plug on its store at Alameda and Main there will be a fairly new retail center with a huge problem attracting tenants. Walgreens has been gone for years and there have been no bites.
As for parking, someone needs to really take a close look at Livermore and Pleasanton. Both have a “serious” parking shortage in their downtowns based on standard planning. But because there are attractions in terms of shops, restaurants, and venues that people want to incorporate into their leisure time activities they will walk.
Downtowns in mid-sized valley communities that work do so not because of ample parking but because they have provided reasons for people to go downtown.
Those who have pushed for a large performing arts center argue if you’re going to do it you’d better go big. Well, that’s nice but if you don’t have one period it isn’t going to do you much good. Besides a smaller venue has much more versatility and intimacy.
So how could this happen? The 20 percent set aside for affordable housing that RDA is required to provide could go 100 percent for the residential portion. RDA funds and appropriate growth fees could go toward the performing arts complex and recreation facility.
Is such a project plausible? Good question.
One thing is for sure the waiting game hasn’t worked nor has trying to get downtown - even as it is now narrowly defined - together on the same page hasn’t either.
Why not explore big possibilities for central Manteca? Manteca certainly is doing that now with the entertainment zone that may lure Great Wolf Resort here.
While there is uncertainty about RDA plus it’s tough to juggle more than one major project, you still have to start the ball rolling sometime.
But to think simply engaging in appeasement as city leaders have done during the past 30 years is going to encourage major private sector investment in the central district is sheer lunacy.
And it is doubtful that an RDA policy of buying up property when it is available and cobbling together enough land to resell to a developer would happen in a timely enough manner to prevent the heart of Manteca from becoming a black hole as the city grows toward the 100,000 population mark. If you think that such an approach would work take the history of the former gas station at the corner of Yosemite and Main that now serves as a parking lot. Private investors and the city have tried to buy it off and on for more than 30 years but the owner isn’t interested in selling.
There is, however, one rather large vacant parcel that might just have willing owners that could be interested in partnering with the redevelopment agency to do something bold that would serve as an economic linchpin of sorts.
To make it happen it would take out-of-the-box-thinking, chucking the old definition of downtown, combining the synergies of housing with retail, and a willingness to bend the rules a bit to make it work.
The parcel is the site of the old dilapidated trailer park in the 300 block of North Main Street that owners Eric Whole and Kevin Wentworth bought and removed with the goal of putting traditional retail on the front part of the parcel and fairly traditional housing on the back along Maple Avenue.
Why couldn’t the city allow, encourage and partner to create a project with commercial space along Main Street with two levels of housing above, a boutique-style community performing arts center seating less than 200 with accompanying space for an arts and recreation center , and additional housing with parking below in a three to four story configuration along Maple.
Some rules would have to be bent or ignored. For starters, there would only be adequate parking provided on site for residents.
The performing arts events would be at night or weekends when more on-street parking is available. Go down Maple and other streets within a block of the site on any given day and you’ll see plenty of parking spaces on the street. The street belongs to the public and not the adjoining property owner.
Handling a weekend crowd or evening crowd of 200 would be a walk in the park given how the street fair attracts upwards of 15,000 people a day and it does so by eliminating a lot of on-street parking and parking lot spaces to stage the event.
There is plenty of available space nearby to entice entrepreneurs to open restaurants or niche shopping catering to those who want to invest their leisure time doing both dining and shopping as opposed to hitting the supermarket or Target to stock up for the week.
Such a project’s location could spill back toward what historically has been known as downtown as well along the two-lane North Main corridor that also is in need of private sector investment. If you don’t think this is critical, should Blockbuster pull the plug on its store at Alameda and Main there will be a fairly new retail center with a huge problem attracting tenants. Walgreens has been gone for years and there have been no bites.
As for parking, someone needs to really take a close look at Livermore and Pleasanton. Both have a “serious” parking shortage in their downtowns based on standard planning. But because there are attractions in terms of shops, restaurants, and venues that people want to incorporate into their leisure time activities they will walk.
Downtowns in mid-sized valley communities that work do so not because of ample parking but because they have provided reasons for people to go downtown.
Those who have pushed for a large performing arts center argue if you’re going to do it you’d better go big. Well, that’s nice but if you don’t have one period it isn’t going to do you much good. Besides a smaller venue has much more versatility and intimacy.
So how could this happen? The 20 percent set aside for affordable housing that RDA is required to provide could go 100 percent for the residential portion. RDA funds and appropriate growth fees could go toward the performing arts complex and recreation facility.
Is such a project plausible? Good question.
One thing is for sure the waiting game hasn’t worked nor has trying to get downtown - even as it is now narrowly defined - together on the same page hasn’t either.
Why not explore big possibilities for central Manteca? Manteca certainly is doing that now with the entertainment zone that may lure Great Wolf Resort here.
While there is uncertainty about RDA plus it’s tough to juggle more than one major project, you still have to start the ball rolling sometime.
But to think simply engaging in appeasement as city leaders have done during the past 30 years is going to encourage major private sector investment in the central district is sheer lunacy.
