[tuy]

Here is some interesting news out of Manteca. Hopefully a start of a trend of taller buildings in the valley. There is also a nice diagram with the article, but it is embedded in a flash presentation.

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070201/A_NEWS/702010344

Projects may signal Manteca is growing up

By Daniel Thigpen
Record Staff Writer
February 01, 2007 6:00 AM

MANTECA - Drivers approaching this suburb may never survey a jagged and imposing Manteca skyline, but city planners are working on a few projects that could push the town a little bit taller.

Planning commissioners recently approved plans for a six-story, 96-foot-tall office building where Highways 120 and 99 meet. The building would house a new regional headquarters for Oakdale-based Oak Valley Community Bank.

If approved by the City Council, it would be the tallest habitable structure in Manteca, jutting out of a high-growth area on the eastern edge of town. It would stand almost three times taller than the city's current 35-foot limit and would be one of the tallest buildings between Stockton and Modesto. The 130-foot-high Manteca water tower is taller.

The project is unusual because most development in south San Joaquin County has been horizontal, not vertical.

"This will be quite a departure from the norm," said Community Development Director Kyle Kollar, the city's top planner.

It's too early to tell whether midrise buildings will become more common in Manteca, but there is at least one other, even bigger project in the pipeline.

Planners are working with a national commercial developer to build an outdoor mall that would include a seven-story hotel off the Highway 120 bypass on the town's south side.

The Oak Valley bank project initially consisted of several smaller, warehouse-type buildings on the site. But when the bank chain expressed interest in the project, planners consolidated many of those buildings into one tall structure.

The move may provide more visibility for the bank in an area that sees thousands of drivers each day, said Jaylen French, a planner hired by developers to help coordinate the project.

"I think companies now just see a ton of potential in the Highway 120 bypass," French said.

Manteca is not the only south county city looking skyward.

In Tracy, planners for years have been working on a massive business park proposal off the Interstate 205 corridor that also could include midrise buildings, said city chief building official Kevin Jorgensen.

For Manteca, a shift to taller buildings will pose a new challenge for firefighters.

Fire Chief George Quaresma said the department doesn't have a truck with a ladder that extends high enough to handle an emergency in a building as tall as Oak Valley is proposing, but he said he expects the city to authorize the purchase of one well before the building is constructed.

Officials have anticipated that such equipment may be needed in the future, so fees tied to new development already have been directed to the cost of a new truck, which could run anywhere from $650,000 to $900,000, Quaresma said.

A recent voter-approved increase in the local sales tax may provide the funds to staff such a truck, he said.

"We realized that in the future there would be a need," Quaresma said. "(Construction) of this building is not going to happen overnight."

[rs913]

It's cool that you posted this. Issues of building heights, changed skylines, etc. affect other places besides S.F. and L.A.

[J Church]

tuy, I was just wondering where you've been lately.

I'm not sure there's a 96' building in the Tri-Valley ... would be sort of amusing if there were a taller building out in the Valley than in a large swath of Bay Area suburbia.

[fflint]

tuy, I was just wondering where you've been lately.

I'm not sure there's a 96' building in the Tri-Valley ... would be sort of amusing if there were a taller building out in the Valley than in a large swath of Bay Area suburbia.
I can think of a skyline inland that beats all but one in the Bay Area... ;)

But yeah, south of Sacramento Stockton is the nearest valley city with anything that tall right now. That I can think of.

[J Church]

I meant the San Joaquin Valley, not Sacramento. Ahem.

Although while I'm thinking about it, I think Oakland's got a stronger skyline than Sacramento, although that's about to change. And how.

[tuy]

JChurch, I am still out here. Just not a lot going on development wise in the Valley at the moment.

[foxmtbr]

Although while I'm thinking about it, I think Oakland's got a stronger skyline than Sacramento, although that's about to change. And how.

Well, unless the NIMBYs manage to stop all this development. :hell:

[ltsmotorsport]

It's cool that you posted this. Issues of building heights, changed skylines, etc. affect other places besides S.F. and L.A.

You're tellin' me. Here in SLO there's been a huge fuss brung about by a small group of short-sighted residents believing that a couple 5 and 6 story buildings downtown are going to ruin the views of the surrounding mountains and change downtown for the worse. Buncha rediculous nonsense.

[tuy]

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/A_NEWS/702230309

It has now been approved.

Manteca OKs first high-rise

Seven-story anchor hotel could be next


By Rick Brewer
Record Staff Writer
February 23, 2007 6:00 AM

MANTECA - City Council members Tuesday approved the first high-rise office building in the city's southeastern section.

Of course, high is a relative term. The Oak Valley Community Bank's administrative office complex will really reside in a midrise building, which planners normally defined as a building from 50 to 150 feet in height.

Oak Valley Community Bank will be allowed to build a 96-foot, six-story facility on a triangular piece of property near the Highway 120 and 99 interchange.

According to Ronald Martin, the Oakdale-based bank's chief executive officer, the 16-year-old financial institution ultimately will occupy about 25,000 of the 60,000 available square feet of office space to house its administration. Bank officials plan to rent out the remainder.

"We're excited about it. We see ourselves as a long-term player, and this is part of our strategy," Martin said. "Obviously, we don't need that kind of space today, but in three to five years we'll have to have it, based on our current growth."

Oak Valley Community Bank has 12 branches and $400 million in assets.

Once completed, the bank building will be the tallest inhabited structure in Manteca. A 130-foot water tower would remain Manteca's tallest structure.

The decision to approve the bank development may signal the beginning of a shift in policy toward vertical development, Councilman John Harris said.

"The city - and really all cities in the Valley - is going to have to think about growing up, instead of out. We can't simply continue to gobble up land," he said, adding that he also would like to see schools and residential developers consider vertical growth.

The next midrise development Manteca officials expect is a seven-story hotel near the Big League Dreams complex, just north of the Highway 120 bypass.

It is supposed to provide the anchor for a larger mall-type development.

But the Oak Valley bank project will be done first, after nearly two years of planning.

Originally, site maps called for several smaller, warehouse-type buildings.

But bank officials expressed interest in the taller structure to take advantage of the location's visibility to thousands of daily motorists who pass by on the nearby highways.

"As we continue to grow up and down the 99 corridor, it made perfect sense," Martin said.

Plans for the parcel also include a single-story structure that, for now, is expected to house a restaurant.