In the coming months, city government offices are returning  to Sycamore Avenue in downtown Manteca.

Fire prevention, code enforcement and community service officers will be housed in the building that was once home to the San Joaquin County Health Department clinic at 124 Sycamore Avenue.

The three municipal services often team up to address quality of life and safety issues throughout Manteca.

The structure is directly across the street from the two-story brick building that housed all municipal government offices — city hall, fire and police — from 1923 to 1978.

“The city is going to be part of downtown,” Interim City Manager Toni Lundgren said.

Actually, the city is already part of downtown. It is the largest property owner even if you exclude sidewalks, streets, alleys, and a couple of municipal  parking lots.

Besides the Sycamore Avenue building that was damaged in May of 2018 when a homeless cooking fire got out of control that the city bought from San Joaquin County for $390,000 after it was remodeled, the city owns:

*The library along with Library Park on 2.8 acres.

*Wilson Park behind the post office and two doors north of the Sycamore Avenue building.

*The Tidewater Bikeway that includes  a wide swath of land between the tracks and the bike path that Mayor Gary Singh has noted is wide enough to possibly construct a two-lane bypass of Yosemite Avenue.

*The Manteca Transit Center with its community room.

*Land were parking will be created for the ACE passenger train stop targeted to start service later this year.

*A mini-plaza on Maple Avenue across from the post office.

Lundgren noted in addition to 10 employees that will be based there, a training conference room will be used by various other city departments to bring more traffic to downtown.

The current use could end up being a holding pattern of sorts.

While it will help relieve space issues at the Civic Center, there are possible visions that have been listed that could become reality as downtown and Manteca grows.

Those include:

*A possible satellite city hall of sorts with a customer service center for residents to handle reoccurring matters such as bill payments.

*Potential use as a community services  site for recreation-related programs as well as serve as an office for city staff that oversees current and future community activities in downtown.

*Partnering with a non-profit to establish a visitors’ center when a certain synergy is reached in the central district.

The bottom line driving the city’s purchase was to have a footprint downtown that they could harness to grow community services with the central district as Manteca’s population growth and downtown evolves.

The city after having its offices located in downtown for its first 60 years of incorporation, moved to the Civic Center campus on Center Street in 1978.

Today, the Old City Hall across the street is having fire damage repaired as its owners are preparing to develop commercial use on the ground floor which includes possibly a restaurant at a future date.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com