There is a strong possibility that Manteca and Lathrop could end up in the same San Joaquin County supervisorial district.

At the same time there’s a good chance Manteca for the first time in 30 years won’t be split between two supervisorial districts.

The latest map being discussed by the San Joaquin County Redistricting Advisory Committee is a tweak of two previously discussed maps. The committee meets tonight from 6 to 8 p.m.

Proposed map E

The newest map known as E places all of the existing cities of Manteca and Lathrop in the same district (District 3) along with a large swath of the Delta. It also would include French Camp and rural north Manteca south of French Camp Road, and west of Highway 99.

Tracy, Mountain House, Ripon, Escalon, and rural south Manteca are in the same district (District 3).

Rural Manteca east of Highway 99 and north of Louise Avenue and north of East Highway 120 are combined with eastern San Joaquin County (District 4) that includes rural areas adjacent to Stockton as well as Lodi and northern San Joaquin County.

Proposed map D2

The draft map known as D2 keeps all of the City of Manteca surrounding rural areas in the same district (District 3). It also includes French Camp all of the rural area west of Ripon up to that city’s western city limits as well as everything rural that’s west of Jack Tone Road from Ripon all the way north to a point beyond Waterloo. It would also include the rural area between Interstate 5 to the west and the San Joaquin River to the east

Lathrop, Tracy and Mountain House would be grouped in the same district (District 3) along with a large chunk of the Delta.

Ripon and Escalon along with the rest of Eastern San Joaquin County would be lumped together with Lodi and the northern county much as they are now as part of District 4.

Proposed map D3

The draft map known as D3 would keep Manteca (District 3) intact but only include a part of the rural area to the south and none to the west.

The district would also include French Camp, part of the rural area between Stockton and Jack Tone Road and a segment of the northeast corner of the City of Stockton.

Part of the rural area west of Ripon would be in the same district (District 4) as Ripon along with the rural area to the north of Ripon and west of Manteca. The district would also include the rest of eastern San Joaquin County, Lodi, and the north county.

Lathrop, Mountain House and Tracy would be in the same district (District 5) as would the southernmost portion of rural Manteca east of the San Joaquin River and north of the Stanislaus River. Rural Manteca under the D3 proposal would be divided between three districts.

The advantages of map E

There are a number of advantages to map E.

First and foremost it keeps natural and historic community associations in the same districts — Mountain House and Lathrop in District 5 and Manteca-Lathrop-Ripon along with Escalon in District 3.

Given that all districts grew but none as fast as the portions of districts in the South County that saw an increase of 50,000 residents between 2011 and 2020 it forced those redistricting to shift emphasis this time around to the Tracy-Lathrop-Manteca area

That reflects the fact Tracy and Manteca last year were tied for being the third fastest growing city in California among jurisdictions with 30,000 or more residents. Lathrop was the second fastest growing city in the state overall while Ripon was the sixth fastest growing among smaller jurisdictions. Mountain House, if it were incorporated, would have made the top 10 in terms of percentage of growth.

The E map would place 151,997 people in District 3 and 157,226 in District 5.

District 3 anchored by Manteca-Lathrop-Ripon in the E map  would have 38.7 percent of its residents classified as Hispanic/Latino, 30.7 percent as white, 6.1 percent as Black or African American, 17.9 percent as Asian, 0.8 percent as Native Hawaiian and pacific islander and 0.7 percent as some other race.

That compares to the proposed District 5 with Tracy and Mountain House with 37.7 percent Hispanic or Latino, 33.4 percent white, 5.1 percent Black or African American, 22 percent Asian, 0.7 percent Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander and 0.6 percent some other race.

Currently Manteca is divided by Yosemite Avenue with those to the north in District 3 and those to the south in District 5. Lathrop, prior to 2010, had all its population in District 3. Since then River Islands home building started and there are now 6,000 residents of that city living in District 5.

The committee meets at 6 p.m. in the board chambers of the San Joaquin County administrative center at 44 North San Joaquin Street in Stockton.

You can also attend via a Zoom meeting using the meeting ID: 884 0585 6113 with the Passcode: 511839.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com