Over the past few years, Elon Musk has expanded his footprint in Texas, moving his companies from California and building offices, warehouses and manufacturing plants across a growing number of Texas counties.
Now Musk is trying to do something that few, if any, titans of industry have done in a century: create his own company town.
A man rides a bike down Memes Street, in the proposed city of Starbase, Texas.Credit: Meridith Kohut/The New York Times
Musk has long talked about his desire to make a new town – which he hopes to call Starbase – in coastal South Texas, where his rocket launch company, SpaceX, is based.
For years, the plan did not appear to be moving forward in any official way, in part because creating a new municipality in Texas requires a certain number of residents and support from a majority of voters.
But in that time, SpaceX employees have packed into newly refurbished mid-century homes and temporary housing in the shadow of the company’s rockets.
Then this month, company employees who live around its offices and launch site took the first major step towards incorporating a town, gathering signatures and filing an official petition to hold an election.
Elon Musk wants to turn a Texas village into a formal town in the shadow of the company’s rockets.Credit: Meridith Kohut/The New York Times
If authorised by Cameron County, the election will allow voters to cast a ballot for a slate of three new city officials, including the city’s first mayor. The petition suggests that the mayor will be SpaceX’s security manager, Gunnar Milburn.
The Starbase petition describes a community of around 500 current inhabitants, including at least 219 primary residents and more than 100 children, in an area at the very end of State Highway 4 by Boca Chica Beach, where SpaceX launches many of its rockets.
