When the dust settles, the best baseball diamond in the City of Lathrop will be in River Islands. 

And the soccer field won't be too shabby either. 

The Lathrop Planning Commission approved a series of resolutions and conditional use permits last week as part of the River Islands Town Center that will construct a pair of private recreation facilities that will cater to the master-planned community that will eventually include 11,000 residential units - more than doubling the current size of the City of Lathrop by itself. 

Islanders Field, as it is being called, will include 550 permanent seats aligned through a combination of fixed seating and bleachers along with a press box, scoreboard, restrooms and snack bar. The field, which will be lighted, will be configured for high school age players, and a new River Islands sponsored team is currently being formed. It will also be available for use in tournaments, and will be made available to local high school baseball teams as well. 

Directly adjacent to the baseball stadium — which will be located directly on the River Islands side of the Bradshaw's Crossing Bridge, adjacent to the San Joaquin River — will be the best "interim" soccer facility in San Joaquin County. Located between Islanders Way and Commercial Street, north of River Islands Parkway, will be at least six lighted soccer fields with necessary parking and a mobile office for the staff of the newly formed "River Islands Football Club" - comprised of residents that will be the primary users of the facility. The soccer field will remain a part of the Town Center phase of the project until permanent mixed-use development is proposed, and then it would be relocated to somewhere else in or around the Stewart Tract area to cater to residents. 

The 8-acre baseball facility and 16-acre soccer facility are being used as a "catalyst for other Town Center development" and to aid in providing "diverse and high quality recreational programs to River Islands and area residents" according to the staff report. 

The recreational facilities would also supplement the existing River Islands Technical Academy — also an interim site — and provide amenities that are not currently available at the site.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.