Question: What is more important to the vast majority of Manteca residents; the number of gas stations in the city or the price of the gas they sell? If you believe the former, then answer two other questions.

Is it really the number or where they are located?

Is it something you’d support if a gas moratorium is a deal killer if Safeway, as an example, wanted to build a supermarket at Airport Way and Daniels Street, or Fred Meyer wanted to re-enter the California market and do so in Manteca, if such proposals were conditioned on allowing a fueling station?

These are questions that matter as a moratorium is being tossed about when the Manteca City Council meets tonight.

A moratorium that goes beyond heavily regulating where gas stations can go — or requires stepped up design and buffering — steers the city more into the arena of marketplace tinkering.

Keep this in mind when the council debates an outright moratorium.

The staff report skirts any mention of pricing such as gas, on an average, often runs about 10 cents a gallon cheaper in Tracy.

They do offer ratios of gas stations per 10,000 residents.

Wouldn’t a more critical statistic for five council members elected to look out for Manteca’s best interests be how much sales tax Manteca generates per gas station compared to Modesto, an example?

There are at least two gas stations in Manteca’s Top 10 sales tax generators as of 2024.

It just so happens those gas stations are heavily accessed by residents passing through Manteca either on Highway 99 or East Highway 120.

Would it be in the best interests for Manteca residents who would benefit immensely by having travelers — including commuters passing through the city — able to have an easy access to gas stations to help pay for police, fire and streets?

This is question that has major general find consequences for Manteca given the city has left over property retained for the right-of-way needed for the McKinley Avenue/120 Bypass that is arguably by far the best site among the Bypass for a future gas station.

It’s on the southwest corner of that interchange where the freeway is elevated meaning the viability created by signage is unparalleled. Couple that with access by the interchange as opposed to the next closest surface street and you have a potential gold mine for the city whether it is through the sales tax or even a land lease for a station.

And let’s be honest about what a gas station moratorium really will accomplish.

There are 33 fueling locations in Manteca, five more that are entitled, and four others in the planning process.

The gas station proposal that fueled the moratorium talk at Pillsbury Road and Woodward Avenue, is now off the table.

Even with a moratorium, there is a potential for 42 gas stations at this point in Manteca.

Potential, because the city has the ability after approving a project for two years and basically granting a perfunctory one-year extension, could decline further extensions without much legal challenge.

That means the five entitled — and four yet to be entitled — could be killed by market conditions given the multi-million dollar nature of building fueling stations per se.

That said, a gas station moratorium based on California realties as shaped by Sacramento is a bit different.

The people that control the levels of state government — the Assembly, the State Senate, and the governor — have made it clear they want oil drilling ended in California by 2040.

And while it is true Trump pulled the rug out from under Sacramento’s ability to end the sale of new vehicles that burn fossil fuel starting in 2035, don’t bet the farm that on Jan. 20, 2027 that it couldn’t be back on track.

How serious those in the community are for a gas station moratorium per se that isn’t riddled with asterisks may depend on how strong and convincing of a stance they make at tonight’s City Council meeting.

The bottom line — short of a home grown massive cry and hue that for long-term environmental reasons Manteca needs to be at the forefront of groundswell local movement to re-enforce Gavin Newsom’s vision for the future of fossil fueled vehicles — is the City Council would best serve Manteca by staying in its lane.

That means Manteca needs to limit where gas stations can go and put rules in effect that substantially distances them from lot lines of residential development along with robust buffering possibly including 8-foot masonry sound walls and tightly planted Italian cypress and such.

Manteca needs a civic policy that makes sure future gas stations work effectively to re-enforce city goals of securing revenue to deliver local municipal services while at the same time stepping up the protection of quality of life in the community.