Lathrop expands for Bay Area emigrates

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Earlier this year, the city of Lathrop resumed expansion of its Central Lathrop master planned community.

City Manager Steven Salvatore oversees planning and development throughout the city.

“In Central Lathrop right around just south of [Lathrop] high school, there’s 430 lots moving forward right now for development in the next year, year and a half,” said Salvatore.

The expansion is part of one of the two master planned communities in Lathrop.
“There’s 1000, 1500 acres or so [in central Lathrop]. We have 5-6,000 homes planned in that region with all the accompanied parks and schools,” said Salvatore.

“The River Islands community is a 5000-acre master plan community, and that consists of ultimately between 11 to 12,000 homes and about five-million square feet of commercial center, employment center and town center.”

Salvatore explained Lathrop currently issues between 200 to 300 building permits per year. There is a plan to issue more.

“When Central Lathrop starts issuing building permits here soon, we’ll probably hit between 4-500 building permits per year. And so, if we do the math on that, [it will take] several decades, and that’s without a downturn in the market.”

The expansion comes at no surprise as San Joaquin County continues to be one of the fastest growing counties in California.

According the Manteca Bulletin: “Based on the May 2016 state report: Lathrop was the fifth fastest growing city in California percentage wide growing 4.2 percent by adding 936 residents. Menlo Park topped the list with an annual growth rate of 5.5 percent.”

This growth is the consequence of the rising housing costs in the Bay Area.

A report by the Mercury News said “the median price in December for a single-family home in Santa Clara County was $1.2 million, while a similar home in San Mateo was $1.4 million, and in Alameda, $838,000, according to real estate firm CoreLogic.”

Meanwhile, the median home value in San Joaquin County is nearly $360,000, according to Zillow.

As more people are moving from Silicon Valley, one of the problems that faces Lathrop is homeowners are still commuting to the Bay Area for work. Salvatore said Lathrop will put effort towards retail and commercial expansion.

There are about 700 acres straddling 120 “slated for industrial development, manufacturing, industrial warehousing.”

“I’m really looking forward to a lot of the working with some of these bay area companies who have shown some interest in this region, and we’re looking to attract those companies to the area for jobs so that people who live here, work here and don’t have to travel over the Altamont to go to work in the bay area,” said Salvatore.

With over 15,000 homes planned along with investments into industry, Lathrop is trending to be the modern boom town.