Commission reinstates PD overlay map, amends Promenade Shops permitted uses

The Planning Commission conducted a public hearing and voted to recommend that the City Council reinstate the Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley planned-development (PD) overlay on the city zoning map and to amend the PD conditions related to permitted uses.

Senior Planner Dave Ruby told commissioners the PD overlay for the Promenade Shops was inadvertently omitted from the city’s GIS mapping during a general plan update; staff proposed an ordinance to memorialize the overlay and a narrow amendment to reassign allowable uses within existing building pads. The proposed amendment would have also added a condition to expressly prohibit certain uses (initially six categories, reduced in discussion). In recent days staff and the applicant agreed to remove the added prohibition (condition number 4) and instead rely on the underlying Commercial Mixed Use (CMU) zoning to define allowable uses; the commission’s motion included striking the extra prohibitions and leaving allowable uses consistent with Manteca’s base zoning.

Applicant representative Ritz Huber (Groupie Huber) said the property owner supports the amended approach and has no current intent to introduce bars, nightclubs or tobacco-related uses. Members of the public asked that uses such as tobacco shops, bars/nightclubs and cannabis retailers not be allowed near nearby schools; staff noted that the Promenade Shops were not identified as an eligible cannabis site under the city’s 2023 program and that a separate ordinance on smoke shops (non-cannabis) is under consideration.

The commission’s motion (including the modification to condition 4 to rely on the CMU table in the Manteca Municipal Code) passed; staff will prepare the ordinance and associated documents for City Council consideration.