Manteca’s latest apartment project won’t need to rely 100 percent on PG&E electricity.

The Prose Project — a 420-unit apartment complex that will straddle the extension of Center Street south of the Manteca golf course — will have extensive solar panels in place to annually generate 1.3 million kilowatts of electricity.

That is enough electricity to power all of the common area needs as well as the anticipated electrical loads of 142 of the 420 apartments.

The developer noted the system would generate the equivalent electricity needed every year  to power 464 EVs that are driven 10,000 miles each.

Manteca Planning Commissioner Judith Blumhorst was able to convince her colleagues Thursday to add a requirement for a traffic control device of some type to provide for a midblock crosswalk.

She made the suggestion after inspecting the area where the project is being built and noting that the existing Stonegate Apartment complex to the east of the project had a swimming pool that was shared by renters of apartments that also staddle Center Street.

Blumhorst pointed out that Center Street would eventually be punched through to Airport Way.

That would convert Center Street into a full-scale collector street as well as a de facto bypass of Yosemite Avenue for traffic traveling from Airport Way to Main Street.

She did not like the idea that children would be crossing what would then be a busy Center Street when that happens in order to go to and from the side of the complex that has the swimming pool and community center.

Blumhorst also talked to people in the area who noted that there were safety issues with vehicles trying to exit driveways from existing apartments due to the heavy use that the nearby Morezone baseball field receives.

Due to heavy use of on-street parking, they have difficulty safely turning onto Center Street.

The project was approved with the commission’s additional requirement that Prose apartments paint curbs on both sides of driveways along Center Street red for the equivalent of two car lengths in each direction.

Greg Showerman of the city’s engineering division told Blumhorst he would take her concerns as well to the city’s internal traffic safety team in the coming weeks to see if the city might also paint curbs red for two car lengths on both sides of existing parking lot entrances for Stonegate Apartments, Westwood Apartments, and the Hensley Building.

The Prose Project  involves 20 garden walk-up 3-story buildings on an 18-acre parcel between Kaiser Permante medical offices on the west and existing commercial on the east.

The Prose Project will require the extension of Center Street to the west with a slight swing to the north.

Seven of the apartment buildings will be located north of Center Street. The other 13 buildings will be between Center Street and West Yosemite Avenue.

There will be three driveways from the northern part accessing Center Street and two driveways from the southern portion.

The entrance from West Yosemite Avenue will tie into the traffic signals at the existing intersection with Winters Drive.

There will be 170,000 square feet of common area, 746 parking spaces, and a community center.

The complex will have 190 one-bedroom units and 230 two-bedroom units.

There are now 720 apartment units in planning review with another 440 units under construction or just completed. When they are all completed under current occupancy  yield factors they will add 2,200 more residents to Manteca.

It will be the second largest apartment complex in Manteca when finished.

The largest is The Atherton along Atherton Drive next to Bass Pro Shops. The second half of the 428-unit complex is currently under construction.

What is destined to be the third largest complex — Union Crossing with 300 units on the southwest corner of Union Road and Atterton Drive — is in the approval process.

The Prose will bump up against the Stonegate Apartment complex that straddles Center Street to the east. Part of the Stonegate complex is adjacent to Westwood Village

Between the three complexes as well as Fairway Estates on Center Street east of Union Road, two complexes on  Union Road and Park Place apartments on Crom Street, the golf course will be near roughly 1,000 apartment units .

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com