Starbase city? Texas votes on granting SpaceX's Boca Chica base official city status

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - SpaceX’s Starship rocket launches from Starbase during its second test flight in Boca Chica, Texas November 18, 2023. — AFP pic

HOUSTON, May 3 — Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s dream of gaining city status for his SpaceX spaceport in the southern US state of Texas could become a reality on Saturday, with voters set to green light Starbase as a new municipality.

There’s little doubt over the outcome of the ballot that will likely name a senior SpaceX representative as mayor of the new settlement.

Most of the 283 eligible voters are SpaceX employees working at the site on Boca Chica Bay bordering Mexico, or have connections to the company whose billionaire chief has long eyed a human mission to Mars.

Most ballots have already been cast ahead of the 7.00pm (0100 GMT) deadline on Saturday.

Musk himself is registered to vote, Cameron County Election Coordinator Remi Garza told AFP, but the South African-born embattled 53-year-old had yet to cast his ballot when the early voting period closed on April 29.

Nearly 500 people live around the base in Cameron County, on land mostly owned by SpaceX or its employees, official documents show.

The change would allow Starbase to control building and permitting and avoid other regulatory hurdles, while collecting taxes and writing local law.

The vote comes at a difficult time for Musk, who is expected to reduce his role as the unofficial head of US President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting “Department of Government Efficiency” to instead focus more on his troubled car company, Tesla.

The vote on Saturday includes a mayoral election, but Bobby Peden, vice president of testing and launch at SpaceX, according to LinkedIn, is the only candidate on the ballot for this position.

The Texas base launched in 2019 and is a key testing site for the company’s rocket launches.

Not everyone is upbeat about the prospect of a SpaceX town.

Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, voiced concerns over the environmental impact, warning of “more environmental destruction.”

“They would attempt more illegal dumping, they would build up their dangerous rocket operations and cause more seismic activity, cause our homes to shake, and that they would destroy more of the wildlife habitat in the region,” she told AFP.

Environmental concerns

It was Musk himself who proposed the name Starbase in a social media post during a visit to the site four years ago.

Then, last December, general manager of SpaceX Kathryn Lueders appealed to local authorities to grant the site city status.

Lueders argued in her letter that SpaceX already maintained infrastructure there like roads, education services and medical care.

Lueders promised the creation of the new city would not undermine SpaceX efforts to mitigate the base’s environmental impact.

SpaceX did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

The hub overlooks the Gulf of Mexico — renamed the Gulf of America by Trump — and there is controversy over access to Boca Chica Beach.

A Texas House State Affairs committee rejected a bill this week by Republican lawmakers that would have given coastal cities with spaceports control over beach access.

Hinojosa, the activist, said SpaceX has limited access to Boca Chica Beach for many years and told AFP she worried the vote could cut access entirely to a beach “our families have been going to for generations.”

The Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas, descendants of an Indigenous tribe in the area, has also complained.

In 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency and Texas authorities found that SpaceX was responsible for repeated spills and releasing pollutants into Texas waterways.

In response to reports that its rockets had caused damage to wild bird nests, Musk quipped on social media: “To make up for this heinous crime, I will refrain from having omelette for a week.” — AFP