Zoning Exemption for Reagan Library Cuts Time for Approval

The proposed Ronald Reagan Presidential Library will be exempt from zoning restrictions that would have prohibited its construction on the 100-acre eastern Ventura County site, county planning officials said Friday.

That decision, made by county Planning Director Tom Berg, will reduce the time needed to approve the library project from 18 months to about four months.

Berg wrote in a letter Thursday to Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation officials that the library will not require a zoning change because it can be classified as a government building. Government buildings are allowed without special permission in open space areas such as the site proposed for the presidential library, he said.

“The library will be owned and operated by the federal government so we determined that, for planning purposes, it is equal to a government building,” Berg said.

The presidential library, which would be on unincorporated land between Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, will encompass 153,000 square feet, making it the largest of the eight presidential libraries, according to a letter Berg said he received this week from one of the project’s architects.

The library, because of its size, could be used to house the proposed Reagan Center for Public Affairs, foundation spokesman William French Smith said. However, the foundation board of trustees has yet to make a final decision on the scope of the center, which had been planned for scholarly research on world affairs, Smith said.

Half of the library will be built underground to accommodate the storage of tens of millions of papers from the eight-year Reagan presidency, Berg said. The library will also include an exhibit area, a 120-seat theater, an auditorium, seminar rooms and overnight accommodations for the President and Mrs. Reagan, he said.

Foundation officials estimate that more than 250,000 people will visit the one-story, mission-style library each year, Berg said.

County officials had earlier said the library might require zoning and general-plan amendments that would take as long as two years and would require approval of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. The library will now require only a permit by the county Planning Commission, Berg said.