Nixon Scans Drawings for Presidential Library Next to Yorba Linda Birthplace

Former President Richard M. Nixon was in San Clemente on Thursday, discussing the final architect drawings for his presidential library to be built next to his birthplace in Yorba Linda, library officials said.

About one dozen members of the Richard Nixon Presidential Archives Foundation on Thursday afternoon met with Nixon at Casa Pacifica, the former Western White House.

It was the first time the library group has met with Nixon since he decided last November to build the $25-million library in Yorba Linda rather than in San Clemente, where the project was delayed for four years.

“Up until now (the foundation) had no opportunity to discuss with him the plans,” said Gavin Herbert, an officer of Allergan Pharmaceuticals in Irvine, who owns Casa Pacifica. “This will be the first time the foundation will show him the plans . . . and iron out a few details,” he said Thursday.

Herbert said Nixon would be shown the final architect’s drawings and possibly a scale model of the library, prepared by the Newport Beach architectural firm of Langdon, Wilson & Mumper. Nixon, 75, was in Orange County this week at the end of a national tour coinciding with the publication of his seventh book, “1999: Victory Without War.” He is expected to return in the fall for a ground-breaking ceremony at the 6-acre library site, which is near the small farm house his father built and where Nixon was born.

Yorba Linda Mayor Roland Bigonger said earlier this week that escrow closed on the 6 acres of property the city is buying from the Yorba Linda School District for $1.3 million for the library site.

Originally, Nixon in 1983 chose a 16.7-acre blufftop which offered a view of Casa Pacifica for the library. The San Clemente City Council in 1984 approved preliminary plans for the library but final approval was delayed because the site was attached to a controversial 253-acre development known as the Marblehead Coastal Plan.

As the approval process dragged on in San Clemente, foundation officials began to look for another site. Nixon originally wanted the library to be built next to his birthplace, but the land was unavailable in 1983.

When Nixon expressed his interest in Yorba Linda again in 1987, city officials were able to negotiate buying the school district property.