Manteca’s first housing with shared driveways are part of development plans for land where the 30,000-square-foot, three-story Hat mansion now stands.

The 738-home project that — when built — will be the southeastern most tract development in Manteca. It is before the Planning Commission on Thursday, July 6, at 6 p.m. The commission meets at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St

The actions before the commission include certifying the environmental impact report, recommending the council annex the 184 acres, and whether to recommend approval of the tentative subdivision map.

The two-phased project includes 104 half-plex units.

Of those, 40 standard half-plex lots will be in the interior of the phase west of Pillsbury Road’s southern extension.

The 64 cluster half-plexes will be part of the phase east of Pillsbury Road.

 The map being advanced will allow the half-plexes to be sold separately. That makes them the most likely candidates to be the least expensive owner occupied new housing when they are built.

The half-plexes are designed in clusters of four. Almost all of the clusters will have no half-plex facing the street.

Instead, front doors will face the common driveway for the two-story half-plexes.

The half-plexess are actually twin sets of two housing units where the two-car garage of the units closest to the street touch the units in the back of the cluster.

The 14 clusters of four half-plexes are in the southeast corner of the project.

They back up to sound walls that will run along the southern extension of Atherton Drive and the future western extension of Raymus Parkway from Griffin Park where it will intersect South Main Street at a planned roundabout.

Directly across the street from the cluster half-plexes will be the eastern and southern edges of a 16-acre elementary school site and part one of two planned parks in the project.

No traditional detached single family homes will face the cluster half-plexes.

It is the first housing proposed south of the 120 Bypass that is neither a traditional free-standing single family home or an apartment complex.

The half-plexes are designed to offer smaller at-market housing units on smaller lot. As such, they should be more attainable for buyers who rely on Manteca based employment or that in nearby valley cities as opposed to significantly higher paychecks from Bay Area jobs.

Richland Communities’ Hat Ranch will also include another first.

Some 16 acres are being set aside for the first Ripon Unified elementary campus. If it is built, it will be the first Ripon Unified campus within the City of Manteca.

 Not only would it serve students from the future homes but also those from existing homes to the north.

Those students are now bused to Ripon schools more than four miles away even though they are within several blocks of walking distance to Woodward School that is part of the Manteca Unified School District.

 The project includes two park sites. One would more than double the existing Pillsbury Estates Park while the second would be adjacent to the school site that is less than a block west of Atherton Drive.

More than half of the dwelling units — 410 homes — will be east of Pillsbury where the bulk of the higher density housing would be built along with the future elementary school site.

That is being done in an effort to get most trips to and from those homes to use the extension of Atherton Drive south of Woodward Avenue.

 Atherton Drive will have a connection built by Caltrans to Austin Road as part of the third phase of the $154 million Highway 99/120 Bypass interchange access to provide the shortest distance to local freeways.

The entire southern part of the neighborhood borders the alignment for the Raymus Expressway section that will be built That is a  key to minimizing traffic impacts on the existing section of Pillsbury Road as well as streets in adjacent neighborhoods.

There are four lots sizes for traditional single family homes ranging from 7,000 feet that will back up to existing homes on the same sized lots already in place to 4,500-square-foot lots. 

 The project includes two separate tentative maps. The eastern-most section of the parcel is where the 30,000-square-foot Hat mansion now stands.  

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com