There are a truckload of problems in the South County neighborhood.

And Lathrop doesn’t believe Manteca is being a good neighbor when it comes to traffic involving trucks.

Manteca disagrees.

It is why the Manteca City Council Tuesday rejected the City of Lathrop’s appeal of the approval of a 295,176-square-foot distribution center for Golden Brands beverage distributors.

The Golden Brands project is in the CenterPoint Business Park in northwest Manteca. It will abut the Union Pacific tracks that separate it from the railroad’s intermodal truck trailer-train facility yard that is wedged between the two cities in an area that is with the county jurisdiction.

Councilman Charlie Halford noted “Lathrop professes to be a good neighbor” but contended its actions regarding appeals of two Manteca projects — the other was a speculative distribution center that the City Council ended up upholding as well — didn’t support such an assessment.

Manteca officials noted the city has already:

*Honored a request by the City of Lathrop not to extend Intermodal Way to Lathrop Road which would have tempted truckers to use that corridor to pass through Lathrop to reach Interstate 5. Lathrop Road through Lathrop is not a truck route.

*Hammered out an agreement with the City of Lathrop to send a percentage of growth fees collected from CenterPoint projects — somewhere between $800,000 and $1 million so far — to Lathrop for the purpose of helping Lathrop fund improvements to Roth Road.

*Has contributed $78,000 to develop a regional truck route plan working in partnership with the San Joaquin Council of Governments as well as the cities of Lathrop and Stockton.

*Was not contacted by Lathrop before they filed the appeal regarding traffic issues they had with Golden Brands project.

Lathrop argued the distribution center — which replaced a previously approved 486-space truck parking yard — needed a new traffic analysis that would essentially delay the project for a year.

Lathrop contends it is a departure from the previously approved environmental impact report for CenterPoint concerning traffic which means they believe there are likely negative impacts.

Bill Barnhardt and Norm Hauser — two nearby Del Webb residents that have been critical over the years of CenterPoint projects they did not believe would be good neighbors including the 486-space truck parking yard — disagreed.

Both pointed out the Golden Brands would result in less traffic, including significantly less truck traffic.
The city’s traffic consultant backed that up that observation noting the Golden Brands project would have 25 percent less daily semi-truck traffic than the truck parking yard. Much of the Golden Brands vehicle trip generation would be employee cars as well as smaller delivery trucks and/or vans.

Lathrop argued Manteca’s decision to prevent trucks from using Airport Way was unfairly putting the bulk of the truck traffic it would generate through Lathrop via Roth Road to reach Interstate 5.

Semi-truck traffic from Golden Brands would use Intermodal Way to reach Roth Road. To reach Interstate 5, they would turn west on Lathrop Road. To reach Highway 99, they would turn east on Roth Road, than north on Airport Way and then east on French Camp Road.

Golden Brands currently has two separate buildings near Stockton Metro Airport.

They would be able to consolidate their operations under one roof with a solar installation that is large enough to cover 90 percent of their  power needs.

The Manteca site would not only have better amenities for employees but it would also have charging stations for both semi-trucks and vehicles.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com