Musk seeing ‘star’ in new city

Boca Chica Village is site of SpaceX owner’s ‘Starbase’

Elon Musk is attempting to create a city in South Texas.

He wants to incorporate Boca Chica Village, where his company SpaceX is developing and launching prototypes of its Starship spacecraft, into a city.

It would be called Starbase, Texas, Musk announced via Twitter on Tuesday.

Boca Chica Village, not far from Brownsville, is a tiny unincorporated area of Cameron County. County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. confirmed the news, saying Cameron County had been officially approached by SpaceX over the past few days.

“If SpaceX and Elon Musk would like to pursue down this path, they must abide by all state incorporation statutes,” Treviño said in a statement. “Cameron County will process any appropriate petitions in conformity with applicable law.”

There’s a process to creating a city. First, the area must have at least 201 inhabitants, said Kellen Zale, associate professor at the University of Houston Law Center who specializes in land use and local government law.

For areas with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants, the city cannot be larger than 2 square miles — that’s 1,280 acres.

“The steps for incorporation are pretty minimal,” she said. “It’s just that population requirement and the territorial requirement, and then you need to get a certain number of signatures and then hold an election.”

Boca Chica Village was developed in 1967 by Chicago radio personality John Caputa, who aimed his sales pitch at working-class Polish immigrants, according to the Texas State Historical Association.

The community initially had a restaurant and hotel, as well as water treatment plant, sewer and electricity service. But a hurricane in 1967 destroyed the restau

rant and utility system. Electricity was restored, but not water. To this day, residents have water delivered by the county.

SpaceX committed to building a launch site near Boca Chica Village in 2014. Progress was initially slow, but in 2019 the company began testing a 65-foot-tall prototype called the Starhopper. The Starhopper had one engine; SpaceX has since progressed to the larger, more complex Starship prototype with three engines.

When the Chronicle visited toward the end of 2019, the community was a mix of overgrown yards and carefully manicured properties. One house lacked a roof and had a tree growing in it, but down the street, homes display the touches of proud owners, with dolphins painted on storm shutters and buoys decorating a fence.

SpaceX has purchased many of the properties, and former residents have moved elsewhere. There is disruption for those living there as SpaceX must evacuate residents when testing its Starship spacecraft, which the company hopes to one day pair with its Super Heavy rocket and launch people from South Texas to Mars.

Zale said there are many reasons why a community might incorporate into a city. It allows residents to create rules more tailored to their area and to issue municipal bonds to make improvements in that direct area.

Bob Stein, a fellow in urban politics at Rice University’s Baker Institute, said incorporating into a city could also be a tactic to protect SpaceX operations in the area.

“It struck me as he’s doing it as a means to protect himself against jurisdictions that might not like what he’s doing,” Stein said.