University of California (System). Regents

A rapidly growing California population in the late 1950s prompted the Regents of the University of California to explore the possibility of adding new campuses in an attempt to meet the state's escalating need for higher education. Enrollment projections suggested that the University would require three new campuses by 1970 to meet the rising demand. After selecting Santa Cruz and San Diego as new outposts for the University, the Regents undertook a search to discover a campus site in the Southeast Los Angeles-Orange County area. The Regents selected twenty-three sites in the region based on size, shape, physical setting, availability, accessibility, their relationship to the center of population and potential for planned community development. Additional criteria for selecting a campus site included finding an area with a large and increasing population, and a strategic site that would relieve pressure from existing campuses, namely Los Angeles and Riverside. Because the new Irvine campus did not previously exist as a University satellite campus, developers were able to carefully select a site and its development that met the criteria of their conceptualized model. After narrowing their selection to the three highest-ranking sites, site #9, situated inland from Newport Beach and located on the Irvine Ranch, was tentatively selected. The Irvine Ranch site was perceived as having the greatest long-term potential for development, despite its relative remoteness. Planners envisioned a campus surrounded by a burgeoning planned community that naturally facilitated a relationship between "town and gown." The Irvine Ranch site was also attractive because ownership of the land resided with a single owner, The Irvine Company. Once the campus site was chosen, the University undertook to appropriate the necessary land for the new campus . In 1960 the Irvine Company reached an agreement with the University of California to deed as a gift one thousand acres of land for a new campus in Orange County. The Regents were convinced that an additional plot of land would be necessary to meet the new campus's ancillary needs. Over the course of the next four years, The Irvine Company and UC negotiated the terms of sale for an Inclusion Area, intended primarily for faculty, staff, and student housing, as well as commercial development adjacent to the campus. In 1963 the two parties reached an agreement in which UC purchased 510 additional acres at a price of $6,500 per acre. S ince the original long-range development plan did not include the 510 acre inclusion area, this addition of property made a significant difference in planning the university and surrounding community.

From the description of Land agreements between the University of California and the Irvine Company, 1960 - 1963. (University of California, Irvine). WorldCat record id: 681415820

...