The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library will stay just outside of Simi Valley, at least for now.

On Wednesday, Ventura LAFCO the Local Agency Formation Commission, which oversees the boundaries of cities and other public agencies put off until June a vote on whether to adjust Simi Valley's "sphere of influence" to include the Reagan Library and the nearby homes and open space. If the sphere is expanded, the city could annex the area, bringing it into city limits.

If the area is annexed, the city of Simi Valley, rather than the county of Ventura, would get its local tax revenues, and would have the power to decide what, if any, development could occur there.

Simi Valley City Manager Mike Sedell said his city wants to annex the area, but it has no plans to allow any development around the Reagan Library.

"If the goal is to protect it, the best protection comes from having it be in the city," he said.

The area is already marked as open space in Simi Valley's general plan. And, Sedell said, Simi's open space zoning wouldn't have allowed the large single-family homes that the county has permitted near the library.

The move also is not a cash grab, he said. The tax revenue that the city would receive from the library is minimal, consisting mostly of sales tax from the gift shop, Sedell said.

The area in question covers about 230 acres. The library sits on 100 acres, and next to that are 68 acres of open space, which the library is trying to buy to preserve it, LAFCO Executive Director Everett Millais said. There also are four single-family homes on 10-acre lots, and another two lots that have been graded for one home each.

LAFCO's decision to delay the vote came at the request of the cities of Moorpark and Thousand Oaks, whose representatives said their city councils needed time to consider the ramifications of the move. The Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks city councils, as well as the county of Ventura, will also use the time to re-examine a greenbelt agreement that preserves the land and forbids any city from annexing it.

The Tierra Rejada greenbelt agreement was signed in 1984 by the county and the three cities. Each agency agreed not to annex or develop the rural land that separates Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks.

Bringing the Reagan Library into Simi Valley's sphere of influence would not violate the agreement, but annexing it would.

County Supervisor Linda Parks, who serves on the LAFCO board, said she'd be open to renegotiating the agreement, as long as it still protects the land from development. She also wants the county Board of Supervisors to make the greenbelt a county ordinance, rather than just an agreement between the county and the cities. That would make it much harder to reverse.

LAFCO officials said bringing the Reagan Library into Simi Valley makes sense because the city already provides water and other services to the area and maintains the roads, even though they're outside of city limits. LAFCO policy calls for expanding city spheres of influence whenever a city is providing services to an area just outside its boundaries.

"I think it's recognized by everyone that it is a part of the city of Simi Valley," LAFCO Commissioner Ted Grandsen said.