SpaceX’s remote site on the Gulf coast is poised to become Texas’ newest city

The campus for SpaceX’s Starship system, known as Starbase, can be seen for miles. Its launch site towers over the remote coastal flatlands that have long defined this southern tip of Texas. For the past decade, SpaceX has developed this area, building a space flight system designed to take humans to Mars and conducting eight suborbital test flights of the world’s most powerful rocket. People who come here to fish in the Gulf now pass through a corridor of rapid construction, heavy machinery and enormous propellant and water tanks. And soon this area, known as Starbase, is poised to become the newest city in Texas. On Saturday, the 283 registered voters who live here — almost all of them SpaceX employees — will decide whether to incorporate as a Type-C municipality and elect a small city government with a mayor and two city commissioners. Incorporating will mark another step towards making this part of the Rio Grande Valley the next frontier in space flight, but some critics fear Elon Musk’s company is becoming too powerful. On top of existing environmental concerns about disruptive sonic booms and debris, they worry that by becoming its own city, SpaceX will have more autonomy to skirt regulations and exert greater control over access to the beloved Boca Chica Beach. It’s a fight that’s even made its way to the Texas legislature this year. “People want to go to Mars. You know what? Let ‘em go to Mars,” said Rene Medrano, a former high school football coach who’s owned land near this area for 40 years. “But you know what, there’s people that want to go to the beach and enjoy Boca Chica Beach.” It didn’t come as a huge surprise when SpaceX petitioned last year to turn Starbase into a city. Musk publicly teased the idea four years ago and made pleas for engineers, technicians, and builders to move to the area. He’s also announced plans to transfer the SpaceX headquarters from California to the Starbase location. SpaceX has purchased large swaths of land here and employs more than 3,000 people. The vote is likely to be a landslide victory in favor of incorporating — and welcome news for Musk, who’s had a rough patch lately between a public backlash to his DOGE cuts and Tesla’s plunging profits. Spreading less than 1.5 square miles, the new boundaries will include the SpaceX facilities and a few newly built neighborhoods around them. Of the 247 residential lots in the proposed city lines, only 10 are not owned by SpaceX or its employees, according to county records. Most of the residents are newly registered to vote in Cameron County. Nearly 95% of them have registered here since 2021. Supporters say Starbase will be less of a burden on Cameron County if it can manage some of its own resources, like security and infrastructure. With more autonomy, they say, it can develop in a way that makes it more convenient for employees. “I think more people will want to live here because why wouldn’t you want to live next to the most amazing thing that’s happening on Earth?” said Anthony Gomez, one of the few non-SpaceX employees who owns property here and runs a launch-viewing business where visitors sign a safety waiver. Starbase is a ‘company town’ Nestled in the shadow of SpaceX’s brand new, one-million-square-foot factory is a small residential neighborhood with a wide variety of housing for rent, from tiny homes and shiny Airstreams to single family houses. Construction for a $20 million, privately funded school for grades K-12 is also under way nearby. The school will be called “Ad Astra,” meaning “to the stars” in Latin. Moving vans and palm trees line the streets. Those who live on the outer edges of the community get unobstructed views of a vast expanse of water, salt marshes and grassy sand dunes. Piercing through the South Texas winds are loud construction noises, with a bulldozer in action at nearly every turn. Employees and their families ride bikes and motorized scooters. Several Teslas are plugged into charging stations. A few miles outside the proposed city limits stands a large, bronze-colored statue of Musk, allegedly installed there by fans. “This is what one would call probably a company town,” said Eddie Treviño, Jr., the Cameron County Judge who issued the order allowing residents to hold an election to incorporate. This will be the county’s first incorporation since the 1990s. Company towns were more prevalent in the 19th and 20th centuries during the Industrial Revolution, when large companies that produced iron, coal, and lumber owned much of the housing and stores around their production facilities. Treviño said it’s still unclear which types of government functions — such as police, emergency, and permitting services — Starbase will take on if it becomes a city. Once incorporated, municipalities are also required to hold public meetings, according to state law. Representatives for SpaceX, which also operates launch facilities in California and Florida, did not respond to a request for an interview about the proposed city. CNN also reached out to the three residents running for the three city leader positions on the ballot, but did not hear back. According to county officials, all three are SpaceX employees. Locals want to preserve access to Boca Chica Beach As county judge, Treviño must walk a delicate line between working with SpaceX and fostering its growth to reap the economic benefits for his county, while at the same time considering the concerns of long-time residents who fear Starbase is getting too powerful. Chief among those concerns is access to Boca Chica Beach, a public state park that’s popular among people fishing for speckled trout, flounder and redfish. Its sole entry point for vehicles is just steps away from the SpaceX launch site. Residents like Medrano say they understand what SpaceX is trying to do, but they hope it doesn’t limit their own freedoms. Medrano, 65, represents the stark juxtaposition between tradition and innovation here in this remote part of South Texas. He calls himself “old school” and uses a flip phone, laughing at the irony of his low-tech technology while he takes on a global behemoth like SpaceX. Medrano took CNN on a drive through the narrow access point to the beach that’s now become a construction zone. He then drove another three miles on sand to reach the US-Mexico border where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf. He’s spent much of his life fishing here with his friends and family, a tradition he doesn’t want to see come to an end. “Just because SpaceX is in, that doesn’t mean that Boca Chica beach is out,” he said. Cameron County already closes the highway leading to the beach on launch days, and it issues road delays on non-launch days, when SpaceX runs tests or transports equipment. Residents can sign up for texts from the county to learn when the road is closed or delayed. Access to Gulf Coast beaches is a constitutional right in Texas. In a brazen effort to support SpaceX, lawmakers in the Texas state legislature tried to change that this spring, proposing a bill that gives the future mayor of Starbase, instead of the county, authority to control access to the beach on weekdays. Treviño, the county judge, has been actively lobbying against the effort. And while it passed in the state Senate last month, it failed to advance this week from a House committee. Treviño called it a “pleasant surprise” that the measure died, but he worries it could come up again. Treviño recognizes that he and others will have disagreements with SpaceX, but he ultimately views the company’s growing presence as a step forward for his county and its economy. “Cape Canaveral was a sleepy little community back in the early ‘60s when it was selected to be the launching site for the Apollo missions,” he said. “We hope this continues to be a win-win. The number of jobs, the pay, the attention, the development, the energy, the excitement has been a net positive.” ‘It’s a great company … but are they respecting the public interest?’ Jared Hockema, the city manager of nearby Port Isabel and the head of the Democratic Party in Cameron County, said he also appreciates the economic boon from SpaceX, but he suspects the attempt to turn Starbase into a city is also a ploy to avoid certain regulations, given Musk’s history as a critic of government oversight. “The question always comes back to: Are you using public power to benefit a private interest?” said Jared Hockema, the city manager of nearby Port Isabel and chair of the Cameron County Democratic Party. “Nobody is against progress,” he added. “It’s a great company, great innovation. There’s a lot of good people working there. They do a good job. But are they respecting the public interest in everything they do?” If residents vote to make Starbase a city on Saturday, the Cameron County Commissioners Court will need to certify the results. The change would then go into effect once the county judge, Treviño, enters an order declaring the city incorporated. For Anthony Gomez, the non-SpaceX employee who has property in the proposed city, the move is another exciting step for the trajectory of SpaceX. He believes this will help ease the burden on the county and cast his ballot during early voting. “They’re moving at an incredible pace, more so than Cameron County can keep up with,” said Gomez, who is originally from Miami. Gomez runs Rocket Ranch, a glamping spot along the Rio Grande that hosts SpaceX enthusiasts. Farther down the river, in the proposed city grounds, Gomez has a viewing outpost where for $150 apiece up to 300 people can watch Starship launches from only 3.7 miles away. He’s closely tied to the SpaceX community and feels the company is misunderstood and overshadowed by politics. “You’re looking at the apex of all of human technology and all the achievements we’ve made, embodied in one vehicle. That’s an incredible thing to witness,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a county in the world that would not like to have that kind of commitment to progress.”