Manteca is heading north.

Even as the city is putting the finishing touches on the general plan update, developers are preparing annexations that include sizeable residential projects.

Manteca’s current growth rate of almost 3 percent is spurring interest in turning dirt beyond the edges of the Del Webb and Union Ranch neighborhoods.

And that means in the short-term, in the mid-term, and in the long-term traffic congestion on Lathrop Road and Union Road will skyrocket. Lathrop Road will have the added bonus of a large bump in truck traffic as well.

But unlike the push south of the 120 Bypass that started in earnest in 1999 when the first tract homes were built across from what is today Woodward Park, the northward push between Highway 99 and the Union Pacific tracks to French Camp Road will be entirely different.

*Roughly a third of the land will be business and industrial parks, a third residential, and a third agricultural-industry with an agricultural buffer to protect the Manteca’s area largest employer with 570 workers and America’s sixth largest winery — Delicato Vineyards. That third also includes the Delta College farm and George Perry & Sons melon brokerage.

*It will be served for the foreseeable future by two state-of-the-art interchanges already in place along Highway 99 at Lathrop Road and French Camp Road.

*It will directly impact East Union High as opposed to current growth south of the 120 Bypass that are within the Manteca and Sierra high school attendance areas.

*It will put pressure on elected officials to relocate the South County solid waste transfer station on Lovelace Road.

Land for new homes envisioned by local developers led by Bill Filios will not breach the north side of an envisioned   “squished”  and elongated backwards “S” extension of Roth Road east of Airport Way to a point midway between French Camp Road and Lathrop Road. Planners want an interchange for Roth Road at Highway 99.

Filios, one of the principals that developed the Union Ranch specific area for 1,950 homes that included land Pulte Homes bought to build Del Webb at Woodbridge, is part of the group expected to initially build homes in the area that could eventually see between 3,500 and 4,500 more housing units.

Roth Road interchange, if it is

built, will be a long, long way

into Manteca’s future

It is unlikely in the next 20 to 30 years — should city leaders elect to have a ninth interchange to serve Manteca assuming land to the French Camp Road interchange is annexed — that the city will have funds in place to build an interchange at Roth Road.

That’s because of the back log of interchange projects.

*The city still needs to identify additional funds to build the McKinley Avenue interchange on the 120 Bypass that is rapidly approaching $40 million in cost.

*Manteca has to come up with money to pay for two of the four lanes of the replacement of the Austin Road bridge crossing Highway 99 as part of the first phase of the Caltrans’ $151 million endeavor to modify the 120 Bypass/99 modification work.

*The city may also have to come up with some or all of the money needed to make the Austin Road interchange 100 percent functional in the third phase of the Caltrans project.

*The city continues to push  — but has no growth fee collection process in place — to build an interchange midway between Jack Tone Road and Austin Road on Highway 99 for the proposed expressway city staff rechristened Raymus Parkway to make it sound less meancing. Given the freeway would need to be shifted to the east and the railroad crossed, preliminary estimates have put the cost of such an interchange at close to $100 million.

*Manteca’s elected leaders have indicated they want to address congestion at the Main Street and Airport Way interchanges on the 120 Bypass by repeating the cost-effective diverging diamond design such as is now in place at Union Road. Between the two interchanges that will be another $50 million to $60 million.

That is close to $200 million worth of interchange work the city needs before a Roth Road interchange is added to the list.

That means for  future commuters living in the area north of Del Webb today to reach the job rich Bay Area the quickest way to do so by car is to connect with Highway 99 at Lathrop Road.

But when it comes to daily activities Union Road with bear the brunt of the traffic impacts.

That’s because the only sizeable area within the northward push that has a chance of developing to the point where one day a supermarket and such may be added is around the Lathrop Road interchange.

Until then Union Road  — and to a lesser degree Airport Way and Main Street — will need to be used by future residents in the area to access commercial and other services.

Airport Way, with growth, will

be congested mess until $130

million in improvements are done

Airport Way is likely not to be viewed as a quick and viable alternative until Manteca somehow finds a way to cover the $130 million price tag to convert the corridor into six and four lanes given it is where the brunt of truck traffic from the growing distribution centers along the city’s border with Lathrop will travel to and from the 120 Bypass.

The Roth Road interchange, if it is ever built, won’t likely happen until Manteca’s city limits breach Highway 99 to the east north of Lathrop. That’s because the Roth Road extension would service what is envisioned as the largest business park/industrial complex in the city’s 20 to 40 year planning  horizon. It starts directly across the freeway from the northern edge of the Delta school farm and stretches all the way to French Camp Road and as far east as Austin Road.

That area could arguably be served effectively by upgrades to the existing French Camp interchange.

That said Roth Road is eventually envisioned to curve into an alignment with Prescott Road. The only reason that would be necessary — or could likely be financed— is if more than six square miles to the east of Manteca is eventually developed with housing.

General plan update

comment period open

The draft general plan review period closes on Monday, June 14. The General Plan and EIR can be viewed on the city’s website at: https://manteca.generalplan.org/content/documents. Submit written responses by 5 p.m. on Monday, June 14, to J.D. Hightower, Deputy Director, at the address above or by email at jhightower@ci.manteca.ca.us

For more information contact the Development Services Department, 1512 W. Center Street, Suite 201, Manteca, CA 95337. Phone: (209) 456-8500. Fax: (209) 923-8949. 

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com