There was a time in Manteca’s not too distant past, that many people thought the city would never grow south of the 120 Bypass.

The reasons were varied.

*It would be too expensive to extend infrastructure such as water and sewer lines underneath the freeway.

*Woodward Avenue was lined with nearly 80 rural homes on small parcels that supposedly would have made it problematic for developers to piece together land for housing projects.

*Manteca had plenty of undeveloped land.

*The area south of the Bypass was in the sphere of influence of Manteca but not the city limits.

All of that, the argument went, would take years and money to deal with. Builders supposedly weren’t that patient to invest the time and money to over those obstacles.

That was back in the early 1980s when had 24,925 residents.

Fast forward to today.

Power saws and nail guns drown out the sound of chirping birds as land that once was dominated by dairies, almond orchards, and corn fields is yielding  what has become Manteca’s biggest cash crop — new homes.

There were 1,307 single family homes started last year in Manteca with most south of the 120 Bypass.

Not only has infrastructure gone under the 120 Bypass, but the city has reconfigured one interchange, added a new one, and is taking the first steps to widening two more to four lanes.

And those 70 plus homes along Woodward have been joined by thousands of homes.

All of what you see south of the Bypass today started rolling in 1998 when Atherton Homes poured the first foundation for a McMansion across the street from a 52-acre weed  infested parcel that was once part of an almond orchard.

That parcel today is Woodward Park where work is about to get underway on a $3.8 million splash pad.

In 27 years, the area south of the Bypass has easily added close to 30,000 people to the city.

Now take a look at Austin Road.

It’s where a lot of developers are looking these days.

The national builder that is doing the site work to build 797 homes where vineyards and orchards were just a few years ago to the northwest of Austin Road and Graves Road, is placing sewer and water infrastructure under Highway 99.

North of Yosemite Avenue,  two subdivisions have been proposed that will border Austin Road on the west.

There are also parcel splits underway prepping for land development.

And yes, developers have been putting out feelers to owners of large parcels east of the numerous half to one acre “country estates” that have existing homes.

The city limits now extend as far east as Austin Road from its interchange with Highway 99 to a point just south of Louise Avenue.

There is a good mile to a mile and a half of property east of Manteca’s eastern most city limits that is in the sphere of influence.

That’s planning jargon for land that is a logical and likely candidate for annexation to a city that also has the blessing of state created Local Agency Formation Commission that has the responsibility to make sure growth is orderly and makes sense.

To the north of East Louise Avenue, the sphere of influence extends to a point as much as three miles away along French Camp Road.

Much of the area —  which is easily eight square miles — is designated by the city in its general plan as agriculture land and not currently annexed to Manteca.

But that was also true back in 1998 for the area south of the 120 Bypass.

The area immediately to the east of Austin Road going about a quarter of a mile deep, has a reserve moniker attached for low density residential. That means it is designated as being future tract homes with up to seven units per acre.

There is one huge difference between Manteca’s eastern flank that south of the Bypass — or the north or west for that matter.

*There is no 200-year flood plain to stop development.

 *There is no city such as Lathrop that Manteca will run up against.

*Nor are there spheres of influence boxing in Manteca as exists with Ripon, Lathrop, and Stockton.

It’s wide open for land developers that feed the housing market demand with entitled subdivisions.

As such, it is where the biggest amount of home building will occur that — under the adopted general plan — will eventually take Manteca’s population from 94,000 to 211,000.