SpaceX is building its own corporate city.
CEO Elon Musk said he wants to create a new city called “Starbase” around the launch site of the rocket construction company in Southeast Texas.
In a series of Twitter posts on his plans, the billionaire tech mogul said the city would encompass an “area much larger than Boca Chica,” the unincorporated coastal town where SpaceX built its huge rocket facility.
Officials in Cameron County, Texas, which includes Boca Chica, confirmed that SpaceX had addressed them in recent days about incorporating Starbase as a city.
But the California-based company would have to follow a series of bureaucratic steps to carry out the plans, officials said.
“If SpaceX and Elon Musk want to follow that path, they will have to comply with all state incorporation statutes,” Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, the county’s top official, said Tuesday. “Cameron County will process appropriate requests in accordance with applicable law.”
To create a new city, SpaceX would have to get local residents to sign a petition that it would submit to the county judge, who would order the election on whether the township should be incorporated, according to the Texas Municipal League. If the election is successful, the city would have the power to create its own laws and other ordinances.
SpaceX has already taken over most of Boca Chica, a small community located on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and about two miles north of the Rio Grande.
The company opened ground at its launch facility in 2014 and began testing rockets there in 2019. As project progress progressed, SpaceX was acquiring most of Boca’s three dozen homes. Girl, although some owners had refused to sell late last year, according to reports.
Musk’s desire to create his own city is the latest sign that he is taking root in Texas. Last year it moved to Lone Star State from California and its electric car maker Tesla plans to build a factory in Austin.
SpaceX also plans to open ground at a new facility in Austin to support the growth of its Starlink satellite Internet service, the company revealed in a job offer.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.