Site Near UCI Considered for Reagan Library

Irvine Co. property near the UC Irvine campus is one of the Southern California locations being considered for the Ronald Reagan presidential library, according to a member of the site selection team.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation approached the Irvine Co. last week about locating the library complex on private land near the university, foundation secretary Martin Anderson said.

An Irvine Co. executive said Tuesday that the company will consider making land available for the proposed library and adjoining public policy research center and that it has agreed to meet again with members of the foundation to learn more about plans and requirements.

Largest Landowner

The Irvine Co. is the largest landowner in Orange County, and its holdings include thousands of acres surrounding UCI. The development company owns about 13.5% of all the land in the county.

Anderson said the Reagan Presidential Foundation has had “numerous” contacts with colleges, universities and private landholders throughout Southern California in the past week, in addition to talks with the Irvine Co.

Until this month, efforts had been aimed at locating the library complex at Stanford University, but opposition from faculty members and nearby Palo Alto property owners put an end to those plans.

The foundation then began focusing on Southern California and reportedly also is considering sites at USC and Pepperdine University.

It was unclear Tuesday how much land the foundation is seeking. At Stanford, the plan was to put buildings on 10 to 15 acres and to include an adjoining 55 acres as open space. The exact requirements, Anderson said, will vary according to the nature of the site. Establishing the library complex, he said, is expected to cost $80 million to $100 million.

It is expected, he said, that the complex will attract several hundred tourists a day.

UCI Chancellor Jack W. Peltason said Tuesday that he does not know about any contacts between the foundation and Irvine Co. officials. He also said he has not been contacted about his campus being a possible site of the Reagan library.

“But I can say that if we were approached by these people, we would take the matter under consideration very promptly and very respectfully,” Peltason said.

Peltason said he could not comment on how the UCI Academic Senate might react to a suggestion that the Reagan library be built on or near the Irvine campus.

The UCI faculty caused a controversy in 1983 when it in effect torpedoed UCI’s bid for the Nixon presidential library.

UCI was considered the top contender in California for the Nixon library in the spring of 1983. But the UCI Academic Senate, which represents the faculty, voted 72 to 1 to put stringent conditions on locating the library at UCI.

Those conditions included limits on museum-type exhibits in the presidential library, a requirement that Nixon give up all claims to control of the materials in the library and formation of a committee with heavy university representation to oversee exhibits and privately funded activities of the library.

No Glorification

Many members of the Academic Senate said they did not want the library to “glorify Nixon” with museum-type exhibits.

The Academic Senate’s position reportedly angered the Richard M. Nixon Archives Foundation, which was in charge of the site search. John C. Whitaker, site negotiator for the foundation, announced shortly after the Academic Senate vote that UCI was no longer in the running for the library.

Cal State Fullerton, in the meantime, was making a concerted effort to be the site of the library. Its Faculty Council voted 35 to 1 in March, 1983, in favor of locating the facility on the Fullerton campus.

In May, 1983, the Nixon Archives Foundation announced that the Nixon library will be built in San Clemente and that Chapman College, based in Orange, will be associated with the project.