Spacex Is Poised To Get Its Own Town

The next thing SpaceX is trying to launch is its own municipality: Residents of the tiny coastal stretch the company uses for rocket sendoffs are voting today on whether to establish a city called Starbase, Texas.

The incorporation of Starbase as a SpaceX company town is essentially a foregone conclusion, as the measure is expected to pass given the local demographics: Of the 283 eligible voters (people living within the bounds of the proposed city), most are employed by SpaceX or affiliated with it.

A yes vote would be a win for SpaceX boss and part-time Starbase resident Elon Musk, who began promoting the idea a couple of years after he chose the southernmost tip of Texas as the touch-off point for SpaceX’s next-gen rocket, Starship, in 2018.

Why does Musk want a city?

Turning the 1.45-square-mile area in South Texas—which doesn’t currently have much besides SpaceX launchpads, rocket assembly facilities, and employee housing—into a city would give Musk’s company more direct say in local decision-making:

• The candidates running unopposed for mayor and two commissioner posts are SpaceX employees.
• As town leaders, they could raise revenue through taxes and acquire land through eminent domain, while loosening zoning rules to spur further employee housing construction.

More crucially to SpaceX’s operations, the town would be able to close the local public beach for weekday launches, which currently requires permission from county officials.

The locals aren’t all stoked

Many residents of the nearby city of Brownsville are worried that SpaceX wants to cut them off from a major destination for waves and sunshine. There’s also general dissatisfaction with rising home prices amid an influx of SpaceX workers moving into the area.

But county officials have largely been supportive of SpaceX’s plans due to its local economic impact. The company says it has created over 3,400 jobs in the region.

Starbase wouldn’t be a first. While a population center so directly controlled by a company is unusual in 21st-century America, there’s plenty of historical precedent. For instance, Gary, Indiana, was founded in 1906 as a US Steel company town.—SK