Elon Musk’s SpaceX has a company town in Texas after residents in the area voted to create the new municipality on Saturday.
On May 3, voters approved a measure that allowed SpaceX to incorporate its South Texas rocket launch site as a new city called Starbase. The voters, mostly SpaceX employees who have moved out to the roughly 1.5 square mile area in Cameron County, approved the small city for Musk’s company by 212 votes in favor to 6 against, according to the Cameron County Elections Department.
“Starbase, Texas Is now a real city!” Musk celebrated in a post to X.
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What does this mean for the area and Elon Musk?
The news gives Musk greater control over the area where Space X launches its rockets, expanding the company’s ability to control local planning, taxation, and other issues, such as extending housing and managing road closures during rocket launches. As a city, it could also potentially be handed powers to close a nearby beach and state park for launches.
Earlier this year, Cameron County denied Space X’s request to build more housing for its employees. As a company city, Starbase will now be able to approve construction projects itself, allowing up to approximately 3,000 employees who commute from nearby Brownsville to live where they work.
Given its new designation as a Type C city, meaning the municipality must hold fewer than 5,000 people, Starbase will also hold the power to levy a property tax of up to 1.5% on residents, according to the Texas Municipal League.
On Saturday, voters also approved measures, electing senior SpaceX executive Bobby Peden as mayor and creating positions for two Starbase city commissioners.
If passed, two bills running through the Texas state legislature would give Peden and his cohort the authority to close a local highway and limit access to the nearby Boca Chica Beach and Boca Chica State Park, instead of being required to coordinate through Cameron County for approvals.
During rocket launches and other company activities such as engine tests, access to those locations must be restricted or eliminated altogether. The two companion bills running through the legislature would shift authority over access away from Cameron County to the new city’s mayor and city council, even though local officials, including Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino, Jr., have opposed such a measure.
What does this mean for other corporations?
The United States has a long history of company towns. In the late 1880s, Pacific Lumber Co. developed a site in California for loggers and mill companies that lasted for over 100 years; in the early 1900s, Milton Hershey formed a company town that helped take his famous chocolate utopia to the masses. Other prominent examples include George Pullman’s company town in Chicago that housed an estimated 12,000 railway workers and their families.
However, the creation of Starbase highlights the shift away from industrial hubs toward the tech-based industry. And Musk’s SpaceX is only one of multiple Big Tech companies in recent years that have looked to expand corporate power through the company-town model.
MUSK GETS HIS TEXAS WISH. SPACEX LAUNCH SITE IS APPROVED AS THE NEW CITY OF STARBASE
Meta, Amazon, and Google are among other companies looking to set up company towns, according to Business Insider.
“Faith in democracy is weak, and so you have this view of, ‘We can create an ideal city and ideal world,’” Grant Bollmer, a senior lecturer in digital media at the University of Queensland in Australia, said. “‘We can structure it according to the principles that are built into these technologies that we’ve created and the values that we’ve created.’”