8 Prospective Sites for UC Campus Revealed : Education: Regents announce possible San Joaquin Valley locations for branch. Choice will be narrowed to two or three by November and a final selection made next year.

Eight rural sites in the San Joaquin Valley, including four near Fresno, were selected Friday as semifinalists in the heated competition to become home to a new University of California campus.

Two areas near Modesto and others close to Merced and Porterville also were among the eight enormous tracts of farmland and ranches that will be much scrutinized over the next few months by the UC Board of Regents. The list is expected to be cut to two or three locations by November, with a winner announced late next year.

However, UC President David P. Gardner warned that plans for the campus, which would be the 10th in the UC system, may halt if state budget cuts are too severe. He described Friday’s site announcement at the regents’ meeting in Santa Cruz as “an act of faith” that the state will provide the $300 million needed to build the school by 1998.

Many communities throughout the valley wanted the prestige and new businesses that come with a UC campus and were lobbying hard. Mayors and civic leaders came to the meeting to receive the good or, for such cities as Visalia and Los Banos, bad news.

“We will be having a hell of a show,” Jim Edmonson, a Merced activist, happily said of the community celebration party set for Sunday.

On the other hand, Visalia’s development director, Michael Ramsey, predicted that the disappointment of not being picked will be eased by the selection of another location in Tulare County, near Porterville. “There will be some letdown but a smile will quickly appear after people realize a UC could be built only 30 minutes from our town,” he said.

UC wants at least 1,500 acres with decent access to highways, airports and urban amenities, as well as a site with visual beauty and assured water supplies. The university hopes owners will donate the land.

The selections were made in a closed-door session, which regents said was needed to avoid land speculation. Gardner described the debate as lively but “as objective and nonpolitical as possible,” although he refused to give details.

From north to south, the semi-finalists chosen from more than 75 contenders are:

Mapes Ranch, a 5,600-acre site of largely flat pastures about 10 miles west of Modesto in Stanislaus County. The property is bisected by California 132 and is near the Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers.

Don Pedro, 3,000 acres of rolling hills 40 miles east of Modesto and a few miles south of the Don Pedro Reservoir. Also bisected by California 132, the location is in Tuolumne County.

Lake Yosemite, five miles northeast of downtown Merced next to the large man-made lake. The 7,000 acres of rangeland has good views of the Sierra Nevada and is 10 miles from U.S. 99.

Table Mountain, 5,200 acres just off California 41 on bluffs overlooking the San Joaquin River. Although this site is in Madera County, it is only 12 miles north of downtown Fresno, actually closer to that city than any of the three sites in Fresno County.

Academy, 30 miles northeast of downtown Fresno in Fresno County. The 3,300 acres of oak-covered hills and grasslands are off California 168.

Watts Valley, also near California 168 and 30 miles northeast of Fresno. The 4,800-acre tract is in the Sierra foothills.

Trimmer Springs, 2,100 acres about 25 miles east of Fresno and 10 miles north of California 180. The rolling terrain is near Centerville.

Frazier Valley in Tulare County, about eight miles north of Porterville and five miles east of California 65. The 2,900 acres are in a river valley along the foothills.

The announcement intensified rivalry among community groups.

For example, Madera County Supervisor Gail McIntyre pointedly described the two Modesto area sites as “so far out in the boonies that they don’t seem realistic.” And Assemblyman Rusty Areias (D-Los Banos), who represents Merced, joked that the Cal State campus in Fresno should be moved to Merced if a UC Fresno is built.

The San Joaquin Valley campus is planned to be the first of three new UC campuses which officials say are needed by the year 2005 for an expected enrollment boom. The valley was chosen first because its high school graduates attend UC at half the statewide rate, presumably because there is no UC campus in the region.

1. Mapes Ranch 2. Don Pedro 3. Lake Yosemite 4. Table Mountain 5. Academy 6. Watts Valley 7. Trimmer Springs 8. Frazier Valley