By Tad Stearn
Skydio, a San Mateo-based aerial drone system designer and manufacturer, returned to Seascape Beach Resort and Seascape County Park in September for its third annual product demonstration event. Dubbed Ascend ’25, this is the second consecutive year Skydio has held its late summer event at Seascape.
A Skydio employee provides information about the drones during Skydio’s community day.
In addition to this year’s conference held on Sept. 17 and 18, Skydio hosted a “community day” on Sept. 16 at Seascape County Park. Billed as a public outreach event, Skydio staff provided information about how their drones work and how they’re used, answered questions and provided the public a demonstration of the firm’s latest vehicles. With the help of free donuts and coffee drinks, the event attracted dozens of neighbors and onlookers. Santa Cruz SPCA also joined in with a canine adoption event.
Skydio focuses on specialized drone applications and systems such as drone as first responder (DFR) for police and fire support services, public safety, utility and infrastructure inspection, national security/military and similar professional and governmental uses. Their systems use unique robotic docking stations that house and futuristically “hatch” the drones remotely. These are not your average recreational drones, and they are not currently available for sale to the general public.
Based on the level of activity and number of people in attendance it appears to have been another successful event for Skydio, Seascape Beach Resort and the local economy. According to Joshua Chirinos, managing director of the resort, Skydio essentially filled the entire facility, with additional attendees staying at other local hotels and patronizing local restaurants.
Event Activities on Public Park Land
Industry conferences, with session breakout rooms and banquet lunches, normally go unnoticed within the confines of a hotel or conference center. But given the nature of Skydio’s products,- and the need for an open air location to showcase them, this event is much more visible and interactive than the average corporate event. The need for additional area and airspace for drone flight makes Seascape Resort and the adjacent county park an attractive location. But it was that use of the public park space that had some neighbors concerned about the size and scale of the event, as well as potential short- and long-term impacts to the park.
Seascape County Park consists of approximately eight acres of public open space that includes trails, a playground, and open coastal meadow. The public park and private resort parcels blend together seamlessly along the coastal bluff, a testament to good planning and California’s coastal access policies.
For Skydio’s Ascend ’24 event last year, a large event tent was erected on elevated wooden platforms in the park’s meadow. The elevated platforms served as a level floor for the tent with minimal impact to the meadow below. These temporary improvements took over a week to complete, involving a host of forklifts, scissor lifts and other equipment to haul materials for the event tent back and forth through the bumpy meadow.
By comparison, this year’s preparations within the park had a different feel and larger footprint. Instead of a single large tent, Skydio erected an open air amphitheater in the park constructed from stacked steel shipping containers with drone docking stations mounted on top. Smaller support tents were set up behind it. The amphitheater structure, named “Dronehenge” by Skydio, included a stage with lighting and sound systems, video screens, and related equipment for demonstrations and presentations. When completed it resembled something akin to a cross between an Arctic research station and a camp at Burning Man.
While viewed more as a neighborhood curiosity last summer, the scale of this year’s preparations caught the attention, and a little heat, from some local residents. Leading up to the conference neighbors voiced concerns about the duration and hours of construction, drone noise, drones hovering over homes, compromised public use of the park, view impacts and the general appearance of the shipping containers. One concerned community member even posted an (anonymous) open letter at locations around the park, addressed to the county and other local officials, objecting to use of the park by Skydio because drones can be used as weapons of war.
Complaints were received by both the county and the resort. According to Sarah Shea, Parks Superintendent for Santa Cruz County Parks, Skydio obtained a special event permit for use of the park, with a stipulation that the park be returned to pre-event conditions. But due to complaints received regarding blowing dust and dirt during construction, a dust mitigation plan was also added on Sept. 9. From initial setup to tear-down, construction work and the event itself were ongoing within the park for a little more than two weeks. Other special events in the park, such as the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s, typically last no more than a weekend.
Portions of Park Meadow Plowed Prior to Event
Before the Skydio event construction even started, it was the mowing and disking of a portion of the park’s meadow by the county that first caught the attention of neighbors and park users. Sometime around Aug. 18 notices were placed at the park’s entrance points that “foxtail mitigation” would be conducted Aug. 19-22, and that the fields (the meadow) would be closed during those dates.
Trucking generating dust driving through the plowed meadow area.
The county’s work consisted of mowing and disking about two acres of grassland meadow near the center of the park with heavy equipment. This transformed the grassland area into a smooth, uniform surface with very fine, exposed soil. It also eliminated some small trails. When asked why this particular area was tilled and not others, county staff responded that some areas in the park are designated as protected wildflower meadow and therefore off limits from this type of earthwork. Parks staff also stated that the grading and leveling was needed to protect maintenance equipment from damage during regular mowing and maintenance tasks.
County staff maintain that the earthwork for foxtail mitigation and the construction for the drone event on the newly-leveled field were unrelated actions. However, the timing of those actions occurring so close together appeared a little too convenient to some skeptical residents, as that smoothly graded area now directly connected the park’s paved parking lot with the Dronehenge construction site. Whether intentional or not, this condition essentially created a more level, but very dusty, haul road for trucks and other heavy vehicles hauling the shipping containers and other equipment in and out of the park.
Residents have also questioned the need for the foxtail mitigation and expressed concerns for the long term health of the meadow. One neighbor attached a laminated sheet next to the county’s work notice, raising concerns about the birds, reptiles and mammal species present and the potential degradation of the meadow habitat caused by the tilling. To others, the problem was simply the lack of adequate communication and transparency about scope and timing of these activities occurring within the park.
Aptos native Antonio S. walks his dogs in the park every day. He’s more concerned with the long term plan for beautification of the park. “I’m not sure what the ultimate plan is, but the easiest solution would be to restore the fields to a natural conditions, with native species”, he suggested. “It would be nice in the spring if the fields were seeded with wildflowers.”
The conference is over and the temporary structures are gone. The park remains beat up from foxtail mitigation and truck traffic. The scale and duration of the event has some questioning if this type of activity and temporary construction should be allowed for a private function, or if it will open the door for similar events.
Neighbor Ellen Martinez, a 25-year Seascape resident, thinks it’s terrific that the resort attracted such a large event. However, she isn’t comfortable with using the county park to construct large structures, even if they’re temporary.
“My husband and I enjoy the tranquility of Seascape Park. The sunsets and ocean views from the bluff are spectacular,” she said. “But the drone conference and the massive buildings that were erected completely wiped out the peace and serenity of the park for two weeks. Looking ahead, the resort needs to construct any required buildings for conferences on their resort property, and leave the park for the residents of the county to enjoy.”
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TOP PHOTO: The temporary “Dronehenge” amphitheater at the Skydio event dubbed Ascend ’25.