Elon Musk’s Star Base in Texas will formally become a city

The area where Elon Musk’s Spacex Company is working on the southern end of Texas must formally become a city called Starbase.

The residents approved, including land spots as a new municipality in the elections on Saturday.

Most of the 283 eligible voters are SpaceX employees. The results, published online by Cameron County, show 212 votes in favor of six opposite. The billionaire Musk wrote “Starbase, Texas is already a real city!” On his social media platform X.

The new town covers about 1.6 square miles (3.9 square km), which was rarely populated before SpaceX began buying land in the area in 2012.

The city government will consist of mayor and two commissioners who will have power over planning, taxation and other local issues. But some residents nearly opposed the measure and accused the company of harming the local environment.

As SpaceX began buying land in the area, the company’s homes and SpaceX have sprouted and Musk has a residence. Other evidence of Magnaz’s presence includes a path called memes Street and a giant bust of the tycoon himself, which was recently vandalized.

About 500 people are estimated to live nearby.

The possibility of establishing as a city was rumored years before a petition, filed in December 2024, paved the way to vote on Saturday.

The first mayor of Starbase will be Bobby Peden, Vice President of SpaceX. The liver is clutched, as well as two other residents with SpaceX connections that will fill the two places of the commissioner.

The BBC contacted the d -Loos for comment.

Starbase will be a city of type C – a category of municipality of less than 5000 people and indicating that, among other things, it will allow employees to impose ownership tax up to 1.5%, according to the Texas Municipal League.

A bill, which is currently hiding through the law of the State of Texas, can enable the new city employees to close the local highway and limit access to the nearby Boca Chica Beach and Boca State Park during missiles and other company activities.

Currently, the closure around SpaceX is launched by Cameron County, which includes the nearby town of Brownsville and the resort town on the island of South Padre.

The result of the vote can create shakes between district officers and Starbase because of access to Boca Chica Beach, as Spacex seems to increase the number of launch on its site in Texas from five to 25 years.

The best employee in Cameron County, Judge Eddie Trevino, Jr., opposes the state bill that would allow the star control over closure.

In recent years, Musk has moved many of its operations and corporate power plants from California to Texas, citing a more favorable regulation and opposition to a policy dominated by California in California.

The headquarters of its companies X and boring are already on the outskirts of Bastrop, a small town near the state capital Austin and about five and a half times north of Starbase.

Unlike Starbase, out of Austin’s development does not include many new homes for company workers – most of whom live in Bastrop or other surrounding communities.

Environmental groups criticize SpaceX’s impact on the nearby wildlife and say the company has increased light pollution and has strengthened the area with debris from rocket launches.

In 2024, the company was fined nearly $ 150,000 (113,000 British pounds) by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on the Environmental Employment Quality.

The company called the fines as a result of “disagreements regarding documents” and maintains that it follows the environmental laws. The BBC turned to SpaceX for comment.