Manteca council adopts updated citywide traffic-calming guidelines, adds automatic review near schools and parks

The Manteca City Council on Sept. 16 adopted updated citywide traffic-calming guidelines and agreed to add a citywide practice of evaluating traffic-calming features when the city repaves or reconstructs streets near schools and parks.

The new guidelines condense the prior 10-step process to five steps and reduce required public contact to two steps, city staff said. Deputy Director of Engineering Samporn Buenca told council the updated program will be posted on the city engineering department page and will include an online request form and a petition form used to gather resident support for measures such as speed humps.

Buenca said the program will continue to exclude arterial streets and restrict traffic-calming measures to local and collector streets with speed limits of 30 mph or lower. "Traffic calming cannot be applied to arterial streets because they are the larger streets," Buenca said. He said the petition form explicitly asks signers whether they accept a speed hump in front of their own home to avoid a common situation where people support general measures but oppose them directly in front of their property.

Councilmembers discussed whether the city should proactively add traffic-calming features as part of routine street-repair projects. After clarifying this would apply to eligible local streets and collectors — not higher-speed multilane arterials such as Northgate — councilmembers agreed by consensus to add the requested change into the policy. Mayor Gary Singh asked staff whether the council’s direction would be an amendment to the item; staff confirmed they could incorporate the change.

Councilmember Morwitt moved to adopt the guidelines as amended to include automatic consideration of traffic calming during applicable street projects near parks and schools; the motion was seconded and carried on a 3-0 vote.

Staff said the approved guidelines will be posted on the City of Manteca engineering webpage and will include the request and petition forms for residents to initiate projects. Buenca said the favored measures among residents remain speed humps, and the city will perform engineering reviews to ensure compliance with state and federal guidance before installation.

Council members emphasized patience for residents seeking measures, noting evaluation and funding can take time. The council’s action authorizes the city manager or designee to carry out the resolution’s purpose.