According to the Lompoc Parks and Recreation webpage, Ken Adam Park served as a county park from 1968 to 1986. The park is named for Ken Adam, the former owner and publisher of the Lompoc Record newspaper.
In 1986 the county relinquished administration of the park to the Western Space Port Museum and it was renamed Spaceport Park. But the nonprofit could never bring their project to fruition.
At about the same time, Allan Hancock College constructed a satellite campus on a large portion of the site which became a public safety oriented educational facility.
In April 1998 approximately 118 acres of the former museum was transferred to the city of Lompoc for “parks or educational purposes.”
Fast forward to July 2019 when according to the staff report the Lompoc “entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Pale Blue Dot Ventures, Inc. (Pale Blue Dot or PBD) and eventual development of a space center project on approximately 82 acres of city-owned property including and adjacent to Ken Adam Park (Property) and sale of the Property to Pale Blue Dot.”
Since then, to date PBD hasn’t met any of the milestones they agreed to in the MOU. Now after five years of consistent delays, changes of plans, and MOU extensions, a hearing was conducted on May 21 to determine the fate of the project. Pale Blue Dot was asking that the matter be sent to the voters for a final decision.
Some city councilmembers were skeptical. Noozhawk reported that Councilmember Gilda Cordova said, “I do not believe that Pale Blue Dot or anybody for that matter could go in the real world and negotiate a land lease without disclosing their ownership structure, without disclosing their financial statements for 55 years, without saying in the event you fall short who do we come after.”
But others were supportive. Councilmember Jeremy Ball said he doesn’t discount the risk associated with the project but sees the potential for attracting tourists.
“I personally feel that we’ve mitigated some of the risk,” Ball said. “I will respectfully disagree with some of you who don’t want to see this here, but that’s OK, too. We can disagree on that.”
PBD provided a new glitzy project summary during this hearing, which differed significantly from previous versions. How many more versions will be submitted is a reasonable question.
The council finally voted 3-2 to send the matter to voters in November.
But this is far from over. As the city attorney pointed out, there are nine significant milestones that remain before construction can start, and it could take at least seven years before any ground is broken, assuming PBD can successfully complete each milestone in a timely manner. Considering their track record so far, it’s conceivable they will ask for several extensions in the coming years.
As far as space tourism goes this project lacks what other destinations at Kenndy and Johnson Space Centers do – space objects such as rocket booster shells, satellites, and other space related objects that kids and adults can touch and have selfies taken with their families.
And considering that rocket launches don’t always occur when first scheduled, it may take several days and sometimes weeks of waiting before a scheduled launch leaves the earth, and then it only lasts less than a minute if the sky is free of the normal marine layer.
It’s much easier and more convenient to watch these things on YouTube while sitting in your recliner.
So far, considering all the missed deadlines and changes of course by PBD, I see no reason to be optimistic that this project will be successful.
References:
638515370442530000 (cityoflompoc.com)
Lompoc Council Narrowly Launches Pale Blue Dot Project into Next Phase | Local News | Noozhawk
PBD project concept: 638515370430030000 (cityoflompoc.com)
