McALLEN, Texas — In the decade since SpaceX arrived on Texas shores, billionaire Elon Musk’s company has created thousands of jobs near the Mexican border, launched rockets and built new homes across an area called Starbase. I’ve done it.
Now, SpaceX wants to make Starbase a recognized city.
Neighbors are seeking an election to incorporate the area, located in Boca Chica Beach on the southern tip of Texas. Musk posted on his social platform X on Thursday: “SpaceX headquarters will be officially located in Starbase City, Texas!”
But turning Starbase into a new Texas city with its own government won’t happen overnight, and questions remain, including what SpaceX and its residents stand to gain. The idea has already sparked backlash from local activists who have expressed concerns about SpaceX’s environmental impact.
SpaceX’s operations are in Cameron County, which has approximately 426,000 residents. The county’s top elected official, Judge Eddie Treviño Jr., said SpaceX’s petition filed this week officially begins the process to become a city.
“Our legal and election authorities will review the petition to ensure it meets all legal requirements, and then we will go from there,” Treviño said.
He did not disclose the dates. But Treviño said if the process moves forward, the next step would be for county elections offices to decide who is eligible to vote and create voting planning authority.
Neither SpaceX nor local officials have said how many people live in the area and will become Starbase residents. More than 3,400 full-time SpaceX employees and contractors work at the Starbase site, according to a local impact study Treviño released earlier this year.
Robert Greer, an associate professor at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, studies how cities are integrated into society. He said cities must write their own charters, provide services, enact local ordinances and collect taxes. There is also the possibility that the tax burden on housing and businesses will change.
“If you create your own city and it’s a relatively small area, you have some control over that area,” Greer said.
SpaceX officials said turning Starbase into a city is necessary to continue expanding the region’s workforce and the company’s development.
“Incorporating Starbase will streamline the process needed to build the facilities needed to make this region a world-class place to live, not just for the hundreds of people who already call this region home. and for future workers who are passionate about building humanity’s future in space,” Starbase’s general manager wrote in a letter to the county this week.
SpaceX faces local opposition to its impact on the region. Most recently, SpaceX faced a lawsuit from local nonprofit Save RGV for dumping contaminated water into a nearby bay. In response, SpaceX said the state’s investigation found no environmental risks and called the lawsuit “frivolous.”
“Some of the questions we have are: What does this mean in terms of regulation and oversight by the county,” said Save RGV board member Jim Chapman.
Mr. Musk has long planted business roots in Texas and expanded them throughout the Lone Star State. The billionaire moved to Texas in 2020 and has relocated or expanded many of his companies in the state, citing the state’s business-friendly climate.
The massive 10 million square foot (930,000 square meter) Gigafactory that will build Tesla’s Cybertruck will open near Austin in 2022 and also serve as the company’s headquarters.
In 2021, Musk moved his tunneling business, Boring, to Bastrop, another Central Texas community near Austin. Musk said he has a vision of building a “Texas utopia” where employees can live and work. The company has its own small community of mobile homes and a store called the Bowling Bodega, which serves as a general store, lunch spot, barber shop, bar, and public playground.
In 2023, Musk and Texas Governor Greg Abbott broke ground on a site for a Tesla lithium refinery near the Corpus Christi coast. Lithium is the main ingredient used to make batteries for electric vehicles.
And in September, Musk moved X’s headquarters from San Francisco to Bastrop, leaving the California location that had been the company’s home since 2011.
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Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas.
