Manteca leaders consider $930 million plan to expand and inprove city parks

With a growing population throughout San Joaquin County, including in Manteca, there was a resolution on the Manteca City Council meeting agenda Tuesday to improve the parks throughout the city.

"Parks are everything in the community," Brandy Clark, Manteca Recreation and Community Services manager, said. "I don't think people realize how important parks are until they're out there and they're utilizing them."

It's why the city took a year to formulate a master plan, meeting with focus groups, and presenting the update to city council Tuesday evening. The plan resulted in a $930,568,525 estimate for three phases over a 15-year period.

"Honestly, it's steps," Clark said. "We have to prioritize the needs and we're also going to have to get the community support in order to rally up that…and also to make sure that those needs are being met. So, I think it's just going to take a lot of community input, partnerships, and creative funding."

The master plan stated there's 5 acres per 1,000 residents required for their general plan and right now subdivisions are building 3 acres per 1,000, according to Michael Rosales, Manteca park planning and development manager. Rosales said they currently have enough for the community park portion but that they are going to need another one.

"As we grow, we're going to be slowly deficit on the community park portion of it," Rosales said. "And right now, we're looking at different locations to add another community park."

Over the past few years, there's been around 3% of growth annually in Manteca  with around 800 homes a year being built, according to Rosales. With more people, more parks are needed.

"It's been growing significantly and it will continue going in that route," Rosales said.

Rosales is by trade a landscape architect with a couple decades of experience and came to the city about 8 years ago from the private sector.

"I thoroughly enjoy public parks, designing them and building them, and so, that has kind of been my passion throughout my life," Rosales said.

The plan is a rough draft and still needs time for more community input, but it could add on to existing parks throughout Manteca, including potentially transforming a softball field to 12 new lighted pickleball courts, among various other renderings depicting park recommendations.

"The plans are just like a guiding light for us," Clark said. "Nothing is set in stone. We would definitely reach out to the community for more input when we get to that spot. But, it basically just gives us a roadmap to determine where we land from here."

So far from community input, they've gathered top priority needs for the community. Those include a gymnasium, aquatics center, improving safety and accessibility, and - pickleball.

"Pickleball is definitely a growing sport in our community as it is in every community, so we're definitely feeling that effect here," Clark said. "Definetley something that we have to strategize for future growth. We love pickleball, however we understand that it's definitely something that we have to address."