Texans in Cameron County are set to vote on a proposal to make the industrial complex Starbase, the headquarters of SpaceX, an official city, Fox 7 Austin reports.
In 2024, SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk moved the company's headquarters from Hawthorne, California, to Boca Chica on the southeast coast of Texas near Brownsville. Earlier this year, SpaceX filed a request to incorporate the 1.5-square-mile site, which has less than 500 permanent residents, as a Type C municipality called Starbase.
The proposal will appear on the May 3 ballot for voters in Cameron County, who would also elect a mayor and two commissioners to represent residents if the measure is successful. There is currently a single candidate for mayor and only two candidates for commissioners.
The New York Times reports that early voting allowed a few dozen people to cast their ballot on the issue this week. Most voters refused to say whether they voted for or against the measure when approached by the Times outside polling stations.
One voter, referred to only by his first name of Austin, told the newspaper that the SpaceX site is "really starting to grow, and a lot of people are moving out here, so it does make sense to be incorporated, especially with the distance to Brownsville" about 20 miles away.
The measure comes at the same time that the Texas legislature is debating two bills that would provide Starbase the authority to close Boca Chica Beach without having to coordinate through the county.
"HB4660 makes a simple but important administrative update to the way beach closures are coordinated around launch activities in Cameron County," SpaceX General Manager Kathy Leuders said in testimony to the Texas legislature.
"What it does do is shift the administrative authority for weekday coordination from Cameron County to the future city of Starbase, helping streamline communication and improve local operational planning," she continued.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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