Ground broke Wednesday at River Islands at Lathrop for the first of what could end up being three fire stations in the largest planned community ever built in the Great Central Valley.
The single-story 12,341-square-foot station is expected to open in mid-2017. It is the fifth Lathrop Manteca Fire District station. The last station was built in 2006 in the Mossdale Landing section of Lathrop west of Interstate 5.
The station that represents an investment upwards of $7 million will serve as the fire district’s new headquarters as well as house eight on-duty firefighters and two fire engines. It will also feature a community room for board meetings and public use. The site will have 47 parking spaces.
The station’s location is at the future intersection of Golden Valley Parkway and Somerset Parkway in the heart of what is planned as River Island’s 350-acre employment center master planned exclusively for 5 million square feet of research and development, office headquarters and laboratory space. The goal is to create 16,800 jobs to balance the 11,000 homes being built in the overall 4,800-acre project
So far 500 homes have been sold and families moved in meaning the incentive account for future business park employers already has $2.5 million set aside. Another 800 lots are now being developed. Overall, the 11,000 homes that ultimately are being built will generate $55 million to help lure employers.
Not only is Golden Valley Parkway the main thoroughfare that will serve River Islands but it ultimately will go from Weston Ranch in Southwest Stockton to Mountain House west of Tracy.
River Islands Project Manager Susan Dell’Osso said she was proud of the fact public facilities are being built at the start of home construction. Cambay Group built a $25 million elementary school that opened before the first home was built. And then when Banta School District kicked out River Islands Academy to start their own charter school, Cambay Group built a second campus in record time so the River Islands Academy students didn’t missing as day of school.
River Islands also plans to build a police station for Lathrop Police Services as well.
“There were two reasons why I chose to buy a home where I did when I moved to Lathrop in 1983” noted Fire District board chairperson Gloryanna Rhodes. “There was a fire station as well as a church nearby.”
Rhodes said a community can’t go wrong when it has fire stations and churches.
She added with how successful home sales have been so far at River islands she expects to see churches soon as well being built in the planned community.
Fire Chief Gene Neely noted Station 35 that is being built will become part of a 98-year-old tradition of providing fire protection.
Neely noted that a lot of people do not realize the Lathrop Manteca Fire District was founded in 1918 as the Manteca Rural Fire District that also provided protection for the City of Manteca that was incorporated the same year. In 1937, the Lathrop Rural Fire Protection District was started. Then in 1956 when the City of Manteca formed its own fire department, the two districts merged to create the Manteca Lathrop Rural Fire District. The name was changed a few years back to the Lathrop Manteca Fire District to reflect the fact the lion’s share of people and structures they protect are in Lathrop — a city that now has 25,000 residents— making it more of an urban district than one that is simply rural.
River Islands arranged for the financing of the new station in such a manner that fees didn’t have to be collected for a number of years from new housing permits before there was funding available to build the structure. 

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com