The largest remaining undeveloped parcel near the geographical center of Manteca as well as within the outer orbit of downtown is 8 acres in the 600 block of South Main Street.
A previous Manteca City Council 16 years ago, wearing their hats as Manteca Redevelopment Agency commissioners, gave the green light to buy the land from American Modular for use as an envisioned South County Criminal Justice Complex.
On Tuesday, the City of Manteca may get the go ahead to purchase the property a second time.
This time it would be for a homeless navigation center/homeless drop-in shelter/transitional housing and possibly affordable housing.
The city as a government agency has the option of buying the property at its appraised value before a forced auction takes place.
Aa appraisal in February of 2021 placed the value at $1,580,000. An updated appraisal will be presented when the council meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St.
San Joaquin County has already awarded a $2 million grant to the city to help with the purchase. An environmental assessment has cleared the site. Also, conceptual design and cost analysis are being prepared to go before the Planning Commission in October and the City Council in November.
If the council reaffirms their desire to proceed to purchase the property, an oversight board formed to dispose of surplus RDA property will likely meet in six weeks to decide whether to allow it to happen.
What happened
the first time the
city, through RDA,
purchased the site
American Modular, firm that builds portable classrooms had acquired the 8 acres for future expansion of their facility that backed up to it at the time but instead opted to relocate to Spreckels Park.
City officials nearly two decades ago doing double duty as RDA management saw it as the perfect opportunity to create a South County criminal justice center featuring as many as six Superior Court courtrooms as well as space for satellite offices for the district attorney, public defender, victim support groups and a holding facility for the courts that could also serve as a holding jail if the city opted to include a new police headquarters in the plan.
The San Joaquin County Superior Court was tentatively on board. The previous council back in 2004 then authorized using $2.6 million in RDA funds that were essentially property tax dollars diverted from the city to help cover the cost of day-to-day services such as police and fire and what went to other local agencies from Manteca Unified and Delta College to the vector control district.
Then the court system switched gears and went for a new 13-story courthouse in downtown Stockton. The RDA was stuck with a property that no longer had an active dedicated project. That meant when then Gov. Jerry Brown pulled the plug on RDAs statewide in the middle of the Great Recession in 2010 to divert more money to government, the property was declared surplus and had to be auctioned off. Proceeds would then be divvied proportionately to the 11 local government agencies that had funds diverted to the RDA.
City per se never
technically owned
682 S. Main St.
On Tuesday, the council will consider buying property the city never technically owned although many of the same taxpayers in older parts of Manteca that pay the city property taxes are still having a chunk of their property taxes diverted to retire RDA debt.
There are still roughly 15 years to go until the debt is retired.
This time around the identified use would be for a homeless navigation center with a drop-in shelter and transitional housing accessed from Carnegie Court for half the property.
The other half fronting Main Street is seen as potential affordable workforce housing in the form of apartments similar to Juniper Apartments on Atherton Drive,
Several council members, acknowledging the extreme difficulty in getting funding for affordable apartment complex housing after the demise of the RDA, said the front half of the land could possibly solve the pressing need for a larger, modern police station given its central location.
However, it is not clear if the city uses the homeless grant to cover the cost of all 8 acres whether a police station or even affordable housing would still be an option for the western portion as the city hasn’t referenced any legal opinion.
The property at 682 South Main was actually auctioned off in March 2020 for $1.5 million. The successful bidder, however, had their financing fall through.
That’s when Councilman Gary Singh suggested the city look at the property for use as a homeless navigation center in the back with affordable housing along South Main Street.
The site is part of the Manteca Industrial Park.
When it was formed via a non-profit public authority by the city in the 1970s, it was well suited to snag typical business park tenants of the era.
Today 8 acres are considered on the small size for most distribution endeavors.
As for its commercial use potential, the changing face of retail led by a shift to online shopping has made such a use highly unlikely.
The city, should they buy the site, under the state orders that disbanded RDAs would receive roughly 17 percent of the purchase price back. That’s based on the city’s share of every $1 in property tax collected by local agencies.
No indication has been made what the city may do with that money when it receives it. The amount will likely be around $250,000
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
