Is Lompoc a place that you associate with “Earth-based lodging”?
Seems a little targeted toward luxurious hippies, doesn’t it? Like some place someone would pay thousands of dollars a night to stay in the Brazilian Amazon or along the Big Sur coast, where they could zip-line through the forest, get massages under trees, eat all locally grown, organic food prepped by a celebrity chef who believes in “farm-to-fork,” and “recycle” your shower water through a bidet that doubles as a toilet.
But most importantly, these tourists are buying the illusion of sustainability sold through green washing. Are these same tourists going to pack it up to vacation in Lompoc?
“Eco-friendly” resorts don’t strike me as something associated with Vandenberg Space Force Base tourism, educational space camp, or Lompoc. It seems odd. Just like the entire proposal from Pale Blue Dot Ventures—a Delaware-based corporation that’s intent on monetizing Lompoc’s proximity to a real-life Space Force base.
And the Lompoc City Council is in! Councilmembers are sending a measure to the ballot that will let voters decide whether it’s OK to turn over 82 acres of public land to a private company so it can develop the tourist attraction of the city’s daydreams. About 42 of those acres are Ken Adam Park, which is on the chopping block.
The park was once a part of plans to establish a Western Spaceport Museum, which didn’t make it. Pale Blue Dot Ventures is ready to “build a galactic gateway,” though, with your help, voters!
You can be part of the daydream solution to Lompoc’s revenue woes, according to Councilmember Jeremy Ball.
“Folks, the reason we can’t do a lot of the things, the shiny things or the fun things, is we do not have the revenue to provide the level of service we should,” Ball said.
Pale Blue Dot is promising 350 new jobs, 50 summer jobs, generating $4 million to $6 million in taxes, and more than 300,000 visitors annually. What? That sounds like a lot. All Lompoc residents have to do is let the city lease the land to the corporation, which will pay the city $20,000 annually and will possibly be able to purchase the 82 acres of city-owned land for $1.15 million if it purchases the land within the first five years of a 55-year agreement.
Whew! Sounds like a screaming deal.
But Councilmember Gilda Cordova wasn’t so sure. She was concerned about Pale Blue Dot being able to hold up its end of the bargain. Apparently, the corporation didn’t disclose its financial details or ownership structure to the city—don’t worry, though, the city doesn’t really require financial disclosure details even from its own tourism organization, Visit Lompoc LLC. (It’s not part of the contract, according to city Management Services Director Christie Donnelly. And Cordova is Explore Lompoc’s president!)
Cordova was concerned about what could happen to the city if Pale Blue Dot goes belly up: “Who do you come after?” she said. “We get a land back full of liens that we will not be able to pay as a community because we can’t even afford our public safety.”
But without risks, there’s no rewards, Ball insinuated.
“I also entertain the possibilities of what could be should some risks be mitigated,” Ball said.
The Canary is still daydreaming. Send pipes to [email protected].
