The fate of a proposed space education center in Lompoc remains up in the air, as the city recently granted its developer an extension rather than opting to abort the project.
Pale Blue Dot Ventures has been in an exclusive negotiation period with the city since 2019 with the hope of purchasing 82 acres of city-owned land—including parcels of and adjacent to Ken Adam Park—to develop a venue for space camps and space exploration attractions.
The Lompoc City Council was asked to reassess the final frontier-themed project’s feasibility during its last meeting of 2023.
“I wish all our council meetings were this packed,” Mayor Jenelle Osborne said at the Dec. 19 meeting, referring to several speakers who voiced their support for the space center proposal during public comment.
Bradley Wilkinson, the founder of a popular rocket launch enthusiast group on Facebook, was one of those speakers.
Wilkinson’s online forum, known as Vandenberg Rocket Launches, has more than 40,000 followers, some of whom also attended the Dec. 19 meeting to bolster the space center. Members of the group regularly post photos of their personal views of Vandenberg Space Force Base rocket launches from various pockets of the Central Coast.
One of the amenities outlined in the space center proposal is to offer a new designated spot for locals and tourists to watch the launches near Ken Adam Park, but that’s not why Wilkinson wants to see the project move forward.
“My favorite spot [to view launches] is anywhere along Central [Avenue],” Wilkinson told the Sun. “My main thing is … Lompoc doesn’t have much. We have no claim to fame. I’m looking forward to the growth that it’ll bring to the city.”
One of the unique contingencies of the space center project is an upcoming ballot measure in the November 2024 election for city residents to vote on whether the project site should be used for anything other than a public park, since the site encompasses parts of Ken Adam Park.
“In order to discontinue the use of a city park and turn it into some other use, there has to be an election,” City Attorney Jeff Malawy explained at the Dec. 19 hearing.
Although the project’s final approval is contingent on the November election, “the next step in the process at this point is to finish our negotiations on the disposition development agreement [DDA],” said Malawy, who added that both staff and Pale Blue Dot believe they can finish negotiations by May.
According to the staff report, the costs of extending the negotiation period are covered by Pale Blue Dot.
While Wilkinson is pleased that the Lompoc City Council ultimately voted to grant the extension, with a 5-0 vote, he hopes city officials will host more public outreach events to gauge the community’s stance on using Ken Adam Park for the space center ahead of the November election.
“If you’re so concerned about what people want, go ask them,” Wilkinson told the Sun. “You need to get out and pound the pavement and ask the public what they want.”
The Lompoc City Council will revisit the space center proposal at its May 21 meeting with an update from staff on the project’s DDA.
“I think it’s really important as we move toward a November election that our community does have as much information as possible so that each one of you can vote and tell us that you want it,” Osborne said near the end of the Dec. 19 meeting. “We come to this with a very critical eye because we take this very, very seriously.”
This article appears in Jan 4-14, 2024.