Elon Musk would like his own company town, please.
SpaceX’s goal is to colonize Mars. But first, it wants to create an official city in Texas.
Employees living on the site of SpaceX’s operations in South Texas are requesting a special election to determine whether the site can be incorporated into a city.
Current residents of Starbase, the company’s South Texas headquarters and launch site, submitted a petition to Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Thursday, according to a SpaceX spokesperson.
“We are investing billions in infrastructure and generating hundreds of millions in income and taxes for local businesses and government, all with the goal of making South Texas the Gateway to Mars,” said Starbase General Manager Kathryn Lueders in a letter to Treviño.
Lueders wrote the area is home to several hundred employees and that incorporating the site would streamline the processes of building amenities needed to make Starbase a world-class place to live. Elon Musk, who owns SpaceX, announced earlier this year his intentions to move the company’s headquarters to Texas.
The spaceport — and maybe future city — sits on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico and is about 25 miles east of Brownsville, the state’s southernmost city. A single stretch of highway connects the city to the launch site.
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She assured that incorporating would not impact their efforts to minimize effects on the environment that were developed with state and federal agencies. This comes after regulators cited the company for not having the proper authorization for its water deluge system. The company remains a target for local environmental groups who are skeptical the company can operate without damaging the surrounding ecosystem.
Treviño did not respond to a request for an interview.
Last month, the Cameron County commissioners denied a variance request from SpaceX that would allow them to subdivide their limited residential area into more lots.
“SpaceX is not the typical developer whose purpose is to build and to sell infrastructure,” read an October 10 letter to the county commissioners from an engineering firm representing SpaceX.
I mean, I don’t trust anything Elmo says or does, so it would take a lot of convincing to get me to support this idea, if I were a Cameron County Commissioner. Maybe they’ll see it differently – I don’t claim to have any idea what the local issues are here, or what incorporating might do to address them. I’m just saying, the idea of Elno Musk owning and operating his own company town ought to give us all at least a little pause. Texas Public Radio has more.
The oil companies did it for years around Houston.
Oil companies had company camps, yes. None of them were incorporated and they all disappeared one reliable transportation became more common.
Personally, I want Space X gone from South Texas. Why allow Musk’s ego to destroy the area.
He has already begin this process by buying a town near Bastrop for his Tesla and Boring workers.
He’s already violating all kinds of Bastrop County regulations and would love to create a fiefdom there too.
See Muskville, Texas from March of 2023.