UPL buyout exploration is underway

Councilmember Betty Martinez Franco discussing her motion to explore a “UPL buyout” at the February 10, 2026 Council Meeting. You can watch the replay here. (Jump to 04:27:00.)

At the February 10 meeting of the Irvine City Council, City Council voted unanimously to support Councilmember Betty Martinez-Franco’s motion to explore purchasing the UPL property from Orange County, or what we are referring to in short hand as the “UPL buyout”.

Side note: Thank you to everyone who emailed, made public comments, and spoke directly with Council in months past and, especially to the lead up to this meeting. Everyone on the dias was very clear as to where the community stands on UPL, and we got a lot of positive feedback about hearing from people, especially new voices.

In response to outreach by community members, County Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Katrina Foley sent Adam Tallabas, District Director, to express her support for UPL and express a wish to work as partners to preserve it. Per Adam:

Supervisor Foley is strongly committed to keeping the University Park Library open and serving the community, and she appreciates the City of Irvine’s partnership in supporting that shared goal.

Where do things stand?

Things are trending positive, but UPL is not out of the woods yet. This motion does not mean Council is pursuing a buyout, it simply opens a dialogue with the County to understand what it would take if the County wants to sell it and if Irvine wants to buy it. Then there is the question of funds: as far as we know, there are none allocated for this.

Staff is expected to update Council on this item in May. To be notified when the report is available, please make sure you are subscribed and opted in to our email list.

Let Council and Supervisor Foley know you are looking forward to the report back

As we wait for the report back, you can write to City Council and Supervisor Foley to let them know you support the ongoing work to explore the purchase of University Park Library. Something to the effect of:

Subject line: Thank you for supporting the exploration of a "UPL buyout"

Dear Irvine City Council and Supervisor Foley,

Thank you for your support of the motion to expeditiously explore a buyout of University Park Library. The community is eagerly awaiting the results of the study and looks forward to hearing how we can keep University Park Library operating successfully in our community on an indefinite basis.

As a (library user/parent/property owner/voter) UPL is important because…

Sincerely,

Your name and address here

To make it easy, you can click the button at the end of this post to open a window with the draft email and addresses already loaded into your default email client. From there you can edit and send it yourself.

Some tips

Personalize it. If you have time, please personalize the message with a statement introducing yourself and explaining your value for UPL. Generic form letters are fine, a personalized letter is better.

If you want a response, add a question and include your address or district number at the end. Questions will be more likely to get responses than statements and, if you include your address or clearly state which district you live in, your representative or an aide may be more likely to take note and reply.

Email addresses

Here are the email addresses you’ll need:

IrvineCityCouncil@CityofIrvine.org, katrina.foley@bos5.oc.gov, LarryAgran@cityofirvine.org, JamesMai@cityofirvine.org, MelindaLiu@cityofirvine.org, WilliamGo@cityofirvine.org, MikeCarroll@cityofirvine.org, BettyMartinez@cityofirvine.org, KathleenTreseder@cityofirvine.org

Feel free to send a copy of your message or CC or BCC us on your email:

saveuplibrary@gmail.com