SPACEPORT STAKES RISE; SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY WANTS VENTURESTAR PROJECT; INCENTIVE ZONE SOUGHT.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - San Bernardino County is raising the stakes in its bid to become a spaceport, calling for the creation of a ``spaceport incentive zone'' to lure Lockheed Martin's proposed VentureStar spacecraft.

San Bernardino County's Board of Supervisors plans to sponsor legislation creating a zone that would be similar to enterprise zones that offer state tax credits to businesses.

The zone would differ from enterprise zones in that it would have eminent domain powers, the ability to force a property owner to sell his property. It also could draw property tax increases such as city redevelopment agencies do and expedite environmental reviews. It would include a state commitment for infrastructure work on the launch site.

``In order to be competitive with other states vying for the VentureStar project, the state of California needs to develop an incentive package for Lockheed Martin,'' a county staff report said. ``The county has suggested to the state of California Trade and Commerce Agency that a spaceport incentive zone be created in order to provide a wide range of incentives to the project.''

Several states are vying to become VentureStar spaceports, including California and Florida. Lancaster officials want to see VentureStar launched from nearby Edwards Air Force Base.

San Bernardino County officials are promoting a site near Harpers Dry Lake, northeast of Edwards, as their VentureStar launch site candidate.

San Bernardino County officials estimate the building of a spaceport would create 2,000 jobs during its construction and anywhere up to 3,000 permanent jobs.

Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, said he would like to make the offer of an incentive zone available for all of the California sites and not just limited to one specific location.

``They (Lockheed Martin) could choose the site best for them and know the benefits would be there,'' Runner said.

VentureStar is a reusable spaceship being developed by Lockheed Martin. The spaceship is aimed at dramatically reducing the costs of getting goods into space from $10,000 per pound to less than $1,000 a pound.

The VentureStar is still in the design phase and the earliest that it could fly is 2005. Lockheed Martin's X-33, which is intended to test technology for use by VentureStar, has been delayed by problems with its fuel tanks. A decision as to where VentureStar will launch is still months away.