The political windstorm whipped up in August over too much housing being built in Manteca has turned into just a wisp of a breeze.

That’s because the end result on the petition drive is on track to reduce future housing units by just 1,296 homes as part of the deal Delicato Vineyards hammered out with the Manteca City Council.

The 7,249 registered City of Manteca voters that signed Delicato’s petitions are clearly not getting what a number of the people who convinced them to sign petitions led them to believe would happen.

The winery has basically agreed to pull the referendum from the Nov. 5 ballot if a general plan amendment before the Planning Commission on Feb. 1 is adopted.

Instead of the city’s general plan that will guide growth through 2043 allowing upwards of 38,103 more housing units, it will allow 36,807 instead.

That is a reduction of 3.4 percent or 1,296 homes.

The breakdown is 937 less single family homes and 359 less apartment units.

To put that in perspective, it is the number of housing units Manteca typically builds in a  two-year period.

The bottom of line of what the 7,249 people will see in exchange  for their signatures that allowed Delicato to leverage a deal with the City Couhcil when it comes to housing growth is almost nil.

Manteca’s “growth cap” of 3.9 percent is still intact. It will allow more than 1,000 housing units to be built on an annual basis over the next 20 years.

And all of the reduction of possible future housing is concentrated a half mile north of Lathrop Road.

The general plan amendment before the planning commission has to be adopted for the City Council to honor its end of the bargain.

It also covers a more precise Roth Road alignment, creating a 50-acre park, and adding more potential job generating business park zoning.

The major elements of the deal that was hammered away from the public’s eye after community input spanning nearly six years forged the general plan that is being amended included the following:

*There will be no residential developments north of Lovelace Road.

*Housing development will not occur east of Union Road at a point beyond where the northern edge of the Del Webb at Woodbridge community.

*Delicato will provide up to 12 acres at no cost for an extension of Roth Road through their property so it can reach Frontage Road on the west side of Highway 99.

*The Roth Road extension through Delicato property will have a continuous sound wall on the northside — save for access gates for farm equipment — to provide a sound and visual barrier of winery operations.

*Existing plans for housing submitted to the city for consideration will be held in abeyance in terms of processing until general plan changes agreed upon regarding zoning changes are officially implemented.

*As such, that means the amount of housing Manteca will allow in the area will be reduced including the elimination of apartments.

*Land to the west and south of the winery will be placed in an agricultural zone. Land between Union Road and Airport Way farther to the west of the winery was already zoned for industrial use in the general plan update as well as land to the east of the winery on the other side of Highway 99.

*The winery operation per se will be in an agricultural industrial zone.

*The area once envisioned by developers for housing on the east side of Union Road north of Del Webb will instead have a 50-acre community park site plus industrial zoning.

*The park site that borders Union Road is designed with  a corridor that connects with a future extension of the Tidewater Bikeway. That means both of the city’s community parks — Woodward is the other — will be accessed directly by city’s separated bike trail system.

*The park’s design with the connection to the Tidewater could allow it to be ultimately doubled in size of industrial land to the east of it doesn’t develop.

*Delicato will pay $50,000 toward the initial design of the community park.

*The cost of Roth Road improvements will be determined and developers will establish funding for it before residential and industrial park growth occurs.

Delicato, in the agreement, will drop the referendum on the general plan that they gathered the necessary signatures to qualify for the Nov. 5, 2024 ballot providing all of the milestones outlined in the settlement agreement are met 88 days before the election. That is the last day at item can be submitted to the county elections office for placement on the ballot.

 The zoning changes are critical to what Delicato believes it needs to protect the future viability of its winery they have parlayed into the world’s fifth largest partially on the strength of a recent investments in excess of $100 million.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com