May 4 (UPI) -- The small area of land in southern Texas where SpaceX launches its rockets will become an official city after a nearly unanimous vote by residents.
"Starbase, Texas is now a real city!" SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on X.
Most of the 283 eligible voters are SpaceX employees, and were in favor of Starbase becoming a city. County election results showed 212 people on Saturday voted in favor of the city designation and six were opposed.
SpaceX began buying land in sparsely populated Boca Chica on the southern Texas coast in 2012. The new city covers about 1.6 square miles and will have its own mayor and two city commissioners who will set tax and city planning policy.
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The first mayor will be Bobby Peden, a SpaceX vice president who ran unopposed for the seat. The council members, also SpaceX employees, also faced no opposition.
About 500 people live nearby. Some have raised noise and environmental concerns over light pollution and debris from SpaceX rocket launches.
SpaceX started buying additional land in the town in 2024 and began constructing housing and other related infrastructure, conjuring images of company towns prevalent in the coal mining and other industries of the 1940s and 1950s when most of the infrastructure, including the housing, was owned and operated by a company doing work in the town.
The Texas Legislature is currently considering a bill that would give Starbase, Texas, authority to close a local highway during SpaceX launches, as well as to limit access to Boca Chica State Park nearby.
SpaceX in July 2024 moved its headquarters from California to Texas to Starbase. Musk cited a host of political factors in his decision to relocate his company.
Musk also announced that he would move his social media company X from San Francisco to Austin, Texas, largely for the same social policy reasons.
