McALLEN, Texas — In the decade since SpaceX arrived on the Texas coast, billionaires Elon Musk’s The company has created thousands of jobs near the border with Mexico, launched rockets and built new homes – all over an area called Starbase.
Now SpaceX wants to make it Starbase a recognized city.
Local residents are calling for an election to include the area, located at the southernmost tip of Texas near Boca Chica Beach. Musk posted on his social platform X on Thursday that “SpaceX’s headquarters will now officially be in the city of Starbase, 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 would gain. The idea is already drawing opposition from local activists who have expressed concerns about SpaceX’s impact on the environment.
SpaceX’s operations are in Cameron County, which has a population of approximately 426,000. Judge Eddie Treviño Jr., the county’s top elected official, said SpaceX’s petition filed this week formally starts the process of becoming a city.
“Our legal and election administration will review the petition, see if it meets all legal requirements and then we will go from there,” Treviño said.
He offered no timetable. But as the process moves forward, Treviño says the county elections department will then create jurisdiction to decide who can vote and then schedule a vote.
Neither SpaceX nor local officials have said how many people live in the area and would become Starbase residents. More than 3,400 full-time SpaceX employees and contractors work at the Starbase site, according to a local impact study published by Treviño earlier this year.
Robert Greer, associate professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service in Texas A&M University has investigated how cities integrate. He said a city must establish its own charter, provide services, establish local ordinances and levy taxes. It could also shift the tax burden on homes or businesses.
“When you create your own city, and it’s a relatively small area now, you kind of have control over that area,” Greer said.
SpaceX officials have said it is necessary to turn Starbase into a city to continue workforce development in the area and the company’s development.
“Integrating Starbase will streamline the processes needed to build the facilities needed to make the area a world-class place to live – for the hundreds of people who already call it home, as well as for potential employees who would like to help build humanity’s future in space,” says Kathryn Lueders. , Starbase’s general manager wrote in a letter to the province this week.
SpaceX has faced local opposition to its impact in the area. Most recently, they faced a lawsuit from Save RGV, a regional nonprofit that alleged SpaceX dumped polluted water into the nearby bay. SpaceX said in response that a state investigation found no environmental risks and calling the lawsuit “frivolous.”
“Some of the questions we have is what this will mean in terms of regulation and oversight by the province,” said Save RGV board member Jim Chapman.
Musk has long had business roots in Texas and has spread them far and wide across the Lone Star State. The billionaire moved to Texas in 2020 and relocated or expanded some of his businesses in the state, citing the state’s business-friendly climate.
Tesla’s massive 930,000-square-foot Gigafactory, where the company makes its Cybertrucks, opened near Austin in 2022 and will also serve as the company’s headquarters.
In 2021, Musk moved his Boring Co., a tunnel construction company, to Bastrop, another Central Texas community near Austin. Musk has said he has a vision to build a “Texas utopia” where workers can live and work. The company has its own little community of mobile homes and a shop called the Boring Bodega, which serves as a general store, lunch spot, barbershop, bar and public playground.
In 2023, Musk and Texas Governor Greg Abbott broke ground for the site of a Tesla lithium refinery near the coast of Corpus Christi. 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 behind the California spot that had been the company’s home since 2011.
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Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas.