Paso Robles teams up with Cal Poly on spaceport, tech corridor plans. Here’s what in store
The Paso Robles City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an agreement with Cal Poly to move forward on plans for a spaceport.
The city will pay the Cal Poly Corporation $110,171 to execute a three-part plan, according to a Dec. 6 presentation to the City Council.
“That is less than one-tenth of the cost from proposals we received of other entities,” Paso Robles economic development manager Paul Sloan said at Tuesday’s meeting. “So not only do we have the advantage of working with the prestigious university (on) this as a partner, but also the cost is significantly less than what we originally thought based on estimates that the city had achieved.”
In addition to building the spaceport, the plan aims to create a technology corridor focused on the space industry in North San Luis Obispo County to bring more head-of-household jobs to the area.
Cal Poly plans for Paso Robles spaceport
Cal Poly’s Digital Transformation Hub will be executing the project, although the agreement is with the Cal Poly Corporation.
The first component of the plan is completing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spaceport application license process, an in-depth process that requires a lot of technical knowledge from subject matter experts, Sloan said.
Cal Poly and the city agreed on a deadline of August 31, 2023, to complete the FAA Spaceport Application, according to a staff report.
The second component is developing a plan for public-private partnerships across the space technology and agricultural technology industries.
By the end of August, the Cal Poly Corporation will have created a website for the city that can be used to promote its vision for a tech corridor.
“The ecosystem brings in all these other jobs. It’s not just people who are engineers,” Sloan said, noting that technical corporations will need legal, business and marketing experts as well as technical experts.
The goal of bringing more head-of-household jobs has been a priority for Sloan, Paso Robles and other members of the Regional Economic Action Coalition of the Central Coast (REACH).
In February, REACH sent a letter of support to the city of Paso Robles endorsing the spaceport plan.
The third component of the plan involves assessing workforce development needs to make the vision for a robust tech corridor in Paso Robles a reality.
Cal Poly and Cuesta College plan to partner on developing technical training programs, Sloan said.
Cal Poly’s Digital Transformation Hub even intends to connect with high school students so they can see a path forward for working on big engineering projects in San Luis Obispo County, Sloan said.
A strategic look at workforce development needs will be delivered by November 2023, the staff report said.
Work on the Paso Robles spaceport coincides with the state of California announcing a new space industry task force focusing on workforce development, research and higher education partnerships among other goals.
“All of (that) aligns perfectly with what Paso Robles has been working on for the last year and a half,” Sloan said. “We’re in good company as the state moves forward in the space sector.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, the council requested that the Digital Transformation Hub provide an interim report updating the council, city staff and community on how the spaceport plans are progressing.
