South Texas voters, largely employed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, have approved a proposal to establish a new city called Starbase. This city will be located in Cameron County, Texas, near the Boca Chica Beach launch site on the Gulf of Mexico. The final vote was overwhelmingly in favor, with 212 votes supporting the measure and only 6 against, as reported by The Associated Press.
The election followed a petition that gathered enough signatures by February to trigger the vote. A total of 283 people were eligible to vote, according to The Texas Tribune. An analysis by The Texas Newsroom revealed that nearly 60% of the voters were SpaceX employees. Additionally, the city’s leadership will consist of three individuals with ties to SpaceX, as reported by the Tribune.
Elon Musk, who first proposed the idea of creating a company town in 2021, celebrated the approval in a post on X before the final vote count. He declared, “Starbase is now officially a city.” Musk’s vision of a new city, which he shared in 2021, has now become a reality.
SpaceX is gaining more control over its launch site, thanks to a newly approved measure. Currently, the company needs approval from Cameron County officials to close Boca Chica Beach for launches. However, Texas Senate Bill 2188 could change this requirement. While the bill does not specifically mention Starbase—since it wasn’t a city when the bill was written—it would grant municipalities with certain conditions, such as having a spaceport and being located in a county bordering the Gulf of Mexico, the power to approve beach closures.
As the bill progresses through the state legislature, the federal government seems to be losing its ability to regulate SpaceX’s activities. Under former President Donald Trump, Musk’s DOGE initiative played a significant role in limiting the authority of federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which oversee SpaceX’s operations.