Acting Chancellor Backs Plan to Sell UCI Land for Toll Road

Responding to criticism from the faculty, Acting Chancellor L. Dennis Smith said in a letter sent this weekend that UC Irvine’s proposed sale of land for a highway “is integral to the continued growth and development of the UCI campus.”

In the letter, sent to the Academic Senate, Smith also disclosed that UCI will ask the Board of Regents later this month to approve the sale of 25.2 acres of campus land for the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor.

For more than 10 years, Smith said, UCI has envisioned use of that toll road in its growth plans. It would relieve UCI traffic and ultimately would “carry nearly 35% of all (motor vehicle) trips to campus,” he said in the letter.

The highway would extend from MacArthur Boulevard in Newport Beach to Interstate 5, near San Juan Capistrano. A small portion of it would cross the extreme southern portion of the campus.

The Transportation Corridor Agencies, which proposes to build the toll road, seeks to buy the 25.2 acres. No purchase price has been mentioned, and Smith’s letter also did not specify an asking price.

Smith, however, told the Academic Senate that he is asking the Board of Regents to dedicate the money for “acquisition of additional (UCI) land in the future.” He is also asking that some of the sale money be used to lessen any future environmental damage, Smith said.

The Academic Senate in June issued a report charging that the toll road would “be a disaster for the campus.” The faculty organization’s report said noise from the highway would “reduce or remove options on land use over a much wider area of the campus.”

In rebuttal, Smith’s letter said that an engineering study in July determined “no noise impacts on current (UCI) housing or that under construction.” The acting chancellor, however, acknowledged that the study showed there would be noise impact in some areas proposed for development in the future.

Smith said UCI has an engineering plan to lessen the noise impact on that future-growth area. And he said the Transportation Corridor Agencies has agreed to reimburse the university for the cost of such noise reduction.

The university also has a plan to lessen any damage to the rare coastal sage that grows in the area where part of the toll road would be built, he said.