UC Chief Backs 2 Sites for New Campus : Education: Peltason urges regents to choose between Madera and Merced counties. He recommends against Fresno County’s proposal.

A proposed 10th UC campus moved one step closer to having a home Tuesday as University of California President Jack W. Peltason recommended that the Board of Regents choose between sites in Madera and Merced counties.

Peltason said he rejected a third site, in Fresno County, in part because of archeological concerns and because there was no residential or commercial growth planned in the area. In a letter to the regents, he said the “outstanding attributes” of the other two finalists made him decide to recommend them both for consideration by the full board.

“I . . . believe that the location of the next UC campus is of such importance that it is an issue on which it makes sense to draw upon the collective wisdom of the Board,” Peltason wrote.

The regents will vote on the matter at their next meeting May 18-19 in San Francisco. Even after a site is chosen, UC officials stress, the state will not have the money to build the campus any time soon. The new campus--dubbed UC San Joaquin--will cost more than $600 million, at least half of which would have to come from the state.

The president’s recommendation is just the latest step in a process that has taken more than six years. It is not good news for Fresno County, where urban planners have spent months drawing up a detailed plan for a campus community. Kerry L. McCants, a spokesman for Fresno’s campus campaign, said he was flabbergasted that the site was penalized for being outside a projected development area.

“We had always indicated to them and made it absolutely clear that this would essentially be a new community developed around the university,” McCants said. “Our position is that it is an excellent site and it would be workable.”

Officials stressed that Peltason’s rejection of Fresno is not necessarily the last word. In the past, the regents have shown their willingness to disregard the president’s advice on this matter. In 1992, for example, the board overturned Peltason’s recommendation that the Madera County site be dropped.

“The president makes a recommendation. But it’s strictly the Board of Regents’ decision,” said William B. Baker, UC’s vice president for university and external relations.

UC officials are determined to build the next campus in the Central Valley because students from the region attend UC at about half the rate of students from other areas of the state, even though they qualify for admission at nearly the same rate.