Manteca leadership has come to the same conclusion their predecessors have done twice since 2002 — the best location for the new police station is at 680 South Main Street.

The biggest difference this time around is the 20-year temporary Measure Q three quarter cent sales tax that went into effect April 1 means it will actually be built.

“It an ideal central location for the public,” noted Police Chief Stephen Schluer on Tuesday after city leaders announced the exact site where the roughly $56M project will be built.

The police station will take six acres of the 8-acre site. It will be built for 25 years’ worth of growth plus the ability to add additional floors.

Mayor Gary Singh indicated the remaining two acres at 680 South Main could end up as a library and community center with a possible performing arts venue.

The police station would be on the southern part of the site with police units accessing the facility off of Carnegie Court and the public from South Main Street.

“It’s a great location,” said Mayor Gary Singh. “It’s central to the city, it’s near the transit center, and animal shelter, and it’s just off the freeway,”

Singh noted, just as City Manager Toni Lundgren indicated the decision to build the station at 680 North Main further extends the city’s commitment to the central district.

Besides the police station, a possible library/community center animal shelter, and transit center the city also has its vehicle maintenance facility, solid waste division, streets department, and water division nearby as well as the veterans center on Moffat.

That is in addition to the current library as well as the public annex on the downtown core.

Groundbreaking for the fire station could occur in mid-2026 with completion by late 2027.

The chief noted the location likely won’t impact response times due to officers already being out in various patrol districts.

But he did emphasize the location will work to the department’s advantage for staging events such as safety fairs.

The facility will include a community room large enough not just for various community groups to meet but also for the police to stage endeavors such as meetings with people as a group to hear their collective concerns in their respective neighborhoods.

It also will serve as an emergency operations center and training room.

Police are working in an almost 50- year-old facticity where closets have been converted to offices, mechanical systems are to the point they need to be replaced, and security is far from being stellar.

There is 20,155 square feet housing operations in five separate buildings.

Originally, the Civic Center police station was designed to handle department growth needed to keep pace with city growth for 20 years. That point was reached in the 1990s.

The new facility will have at least 45,570 square feet of building space.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com