City leaders want to review options for possibly placing more restrooms in select Manteca parks as well as dog waste stations.
The Manteca City Council directed staff on Tuesday to look at costs and develop possible criteria for what parks might get the facilities. The goal is to have such expenditures weighed against other needs and wants when the city is fashioning a spending plan for the fiscal year starting July 1.
The subject came up after Councilman Gary Singh said he was approached by several residents who had young children — or who were elderly — who had a need to use bathrooms when they were at city parks.
At the same time, other council members wanted to look at possibly adding dog waste stations equipped with poop bags and a waste container for their deposit. There have been complaints about dog owners using parks not picking up after their dogs or doing so and then discarding the bagged waste as they walked instead of waiting until they returned home to properly dispose of it.
The city currently has restrooms in community parks such as Woodward, Northgate and Lincoln where a lot of activity takes place as well as several select parks such as Library Park, the Morezone Park baseball field on Center Street and the Spreckels Park BMX park.
Both Mayor Ben Cantu and Councilman Charlie Halford remined colleagues that cost considerations needed to include the cost of cleaning and maintaining restrooms and dog waste stations.
Cantu pointed out nearly 30 years ago the city opted not to place restrooms in neighborhood parks due to the cost of maintaining them.
Interim City Manager Toni Lundgren said it make might sense to develop criteria that parks considered for restrooms would have to have higher use than others such as the Union Ranch Park that has a picnic area with a small shelter or some of the newer parks south of the 120 Bypass that have added features others outside of the immediate area may use such as a disc golf course.
Singh brought up the issue of restrooms in neighborhood parks in February 2019 as well but staff batted the idea down saying it was too costly.
Back in 2019 Singh had people approach him that neighborhood parks that were receiving heavy use for youth practices lacking restrooms was creating problems for people.
Lundgren said there are new portable bathroom options that are a step above traditional portable toilets that might be cost effective that she will have staff research.
Halford pointed out that the cost of putting neighborhood parks in place complete with city required improvements is borne by the developer who then have neighborhood park fees paid per house reduced accordingly on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
If restrooms were added to future neighborhood parks they wouldn’t be a maintenance and cost burden to the city as all such costs are now being collapsed into landscape maintenance districts fees assessed annually on homes in new subdivisions. That means the cost of cleaning restrooms, making repairs, and even using the security service the city contracts to lock restrooms nightly at community parks would be borne by homeowners.
The city is unlikely to pursue “package restrooms” that have plumbing attached to the city’s sewer system.
A prefabbed restroom was put in place for $125,900 at Library Park in 2004. The city in 2016 spent $211,155 to put a prefabbed restroom in place at the Civic Center on the north side of the council chambers building for those attending public meetings that need to use a bathroom.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
