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New truck sales, service in the works
Keyes truck center
Construction activity is occurring in Keyes on a new truck center. As work on the Keyes Truck Center moves along, another trucking company project is being planned just to the south (JEFF BENZIGER/The Journal).

Heavy equipment is fast at work to build a new trucking center in Keyes, just east of Highway 99.

Both grading and construction permits have been issued by Stanislaus County to build a 39,715-square-foot building at 4618 Nunes Road for the Keyes Truck Center, a dealership of semi-trucks that also services them.

Keyes Truck Center is presently operating in the industrial area of Ceres on Rockefeller Drive.

Originally the 17-acre site between Nunes and Keyes roads and between Highway 99 and N. Golden State Boulevard, was rezoned from A-2-10 to P-D 55 in 2006 to allow for a proposed 50,000-square-foot Cherokee Plaza with a beauty college, restaurants and retail businesses but never developed. In 2015 Belkorp Ag LLC received approval to build a new John Deere dealership on the northern part of the site but later abandoned plans. The site was then acquired for the new Keyes Truck Center. The project, however, was downsized from Belkorp’s 57,000 square foot building.

Another development to the south is expected. According to Angela Freitas of the Stanislaus County Planning and Community Development Department, an application has been filed by Sanghera Investments to develop the 5.23-acre site south of the Keyes Truck Center site to serve as a truck terminal that facilitates the fueling, parking, loading and unloading for company owned trucks and its drivers on a 5.23-acre parcel. The application is undergoing environmental review and has yet to make its way to the county Planning Commission.

The Sanghera request is for a rezoning from P-D 302 (Planned Development) and A-2-10 (General Agriculture) to a new P-D zone allows for H-1 (Highway Frontage) uses. It had to be completed before the company works on acquiring the site.

The site would be primarily accessed from N. Golden State Boulevard.

The Sanghera project will consist of four buildings, consisting of a:

•6,500-square-feet, two-story office, shop and driver amenities building; 

• Shop to be utilized for light truck maintenance, and for driver rest, shower and laundry facilities;

• 6,000-square-feet administrative building for truck dispatching, reception, security office, conference room, and an employee restroom and breakroom;

• 3,900-square-feet truck dock building and a 94-square-feet security guard kiosk.

The project proposes to contract with various agriculture producers and grocery stores for the transfer and delivery of goods throughout California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas.

There will be paved areas around the buildings and in the parking lot, but the remainder of the site, including the truck parking area, will be a gravel lot.

The project proposes 13 employees during a maximum shift and three employees during a minimum shift. Drivers reporting to the site arrive on an as-needed basis for refueling, or for the loading and offloading of product. However, no product will be stored onsite.

Approximately five to seven drivers will be on site on any given day. It is estimated that there will be a maximum of 10 trucks and 10 trailers parked at the facility at any given time, however, the site will accommodate the parking of up to 60 trucks, which will be offsite making deliveries the majority of the time.

The office and shop is proposed to operate weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. However, trucks will have access to the facility all the time. Besides the parking spaces for 60 trucks, the facility will have parking spaces for 51 drivers and 16 office employees.

A reciprocal access agreement is proposed between the adjoining parcels to utilize a shared access.

Included in the application are plans for a 74-space parking lot and a one-acre drainage basin south of the proposed building.