Planners Back Reagan Request for Burial at Library

Ventura County planners have recommended that the county Planning Commission honor the request of former President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, to be buried at his presidential library near Simi Valley.

In a report released Friday, planners said a small burial plot reserved only for the Reagans would conform with county zoning laws provided it is approved by the California Cemetery Board and has proper security measures.

The planning staff specifically asked that library maintenance crews spray graffiti-resistant paint on all graveyard fixtures and that sufficient lighting and 24-hour-a-day security cameras be installed to ward off vandals.

The commission is scheduled to consider the matter Thursday and also take up requests from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation that nighttime social and educational functions and food services be allowed at the library complex.

The planners recommended approval of the after-dark functions, including catered dinners, as long as they are not political fund-raisers or other events unrelated to the library or local civic matters.

William B. Garber Jr., Reagan’s chief spokesman, said he was unaware of the staff’s recommendation. “If they are agreeing with what we requested, I think that’s good.”

In March, the Reagans requested that the county provide a zoning clearance for a small resting place to follow the tradition of former presidents who are buried on the grounds of their libraries.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is scheduled to open Nov. 4, exactly 11 years after Reagan was first elected President. The 153,000-square-foot complex is expected eventually to hold all of the presidential papers Reagan collected during his eight years in the White House.

When completed, it will also have a museum that traces Reagan’s life and highlights his presidency.

Given the national attention to the Reagans’ burial request, county officials anticipated a flurry of letters on the matter, said John Bencomo, the planner handling the case.

But the county received only two anonymous letters, both objecting to the Reagans’ request. One letter protested that the “grandiose request would reflect upon all Americans of good taste.”

“It is tacky. Please just say no,” said the letter, signed only as a “Registered Republican.”

The other letter made an impassioned plea not to afford privileges to the Reagans that are beyond the reach of other citizens.

Bencomo said the burial request did not present serious concerns to planners. His report notes that the county already granted a similar request for a cemetery at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, a Jewish cultural and educational institution south of the city of Simi Valley.

Shlomo Bardin is buried at the institute he founded at the urging of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, an institute spokesman said.

In exchange for approval, the county has set several conditions, including that the cemetery conform to the architecture and the landscaping of the library and that it meet the requirements of the California Cemetery Board. Among other things, the board requires a $35,000 bond to ensure the grave sites are maintained.

Bencomo said county officials have been more concerned about the nighttime functions, up to 60 a year, that the foundation wants to hold in the various meeting rooms at the Spanish-style library complex off Madera Road just outside Simi Valley city limits.

“Our intention was not to permit any political fund-raisers,” Bencomo said. He said the county would allow events to raise money for the library or the Ronald Reagan Foundation.

But he said the site approval was never intended to allow the infusion of partisan politics. “We don’t want any kind of Republican conventions or to allow the local chapter of the Republican Party to have a party there,” he said. “That is not the intent.”