Recent/Current Initiatives

South County EDC UAV Facility Needs Analysis

The City of Chula Vista (CA) has designated a 375-acre section of land in southern San Diego County as a test facility for commercial UAV (“drone”) development and training. As part of an effort to upgrade this facility, we were asked by the South County Economic Development Council (SCEDC) to assess the upgrades necessary to make the facility fully functional.

• We developed a matrix of UAV test site functionality versus the various commercial and governmental UAV users to evaluate the needs of a test facility in supporting UAV development. These included both infrastructure and services.

• We researched the FAA rules concerning the operation of UAVs in controlled airspace and the issues the city would have to address in expanding the facility.

• We interviewed potential users of the facility to determine the viability of the site as a test and development asset to their business model. This included UAV developers, training facilities, and users.

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Castle Phelps and Pat Kelly explore the Chula Vista UAV test facility site.

Castle Phelps surveys the area designated as a test site for UAVs by the City of Chula Vista.