Starbase, Texas

If you read that title and you thought that Elon Musk must somehow be involved, you would be correct.

Elon Musk is attempting to create a city in south Texas.

He wants to incorporate Boca Chica Village, where his company SpaceX is developing and launching prototypes of its Starship spacecraft, into a city.

It would be called Starbase, Texas, Musk announced via Twitter on Tuesday.

Boca Chica Village, not far from Brownsville, is a tiny unincorporated area of Cameron County. County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. confirmed the news, saying Cameron County had been officially approached by SpaceX over the past few days.

“If SpaceX and Elon Musk would like to pursue down this path, they must abide by all state incorporation statutes,” Treviño said in a statement. “Cameron County will process any appropriate petitions in conformity with applicable law.”

There’s a process to creating a city. First, the area must have at least 201 inhabitants, said Kellen Zale, associate professor at the University of Houston Law Center who specializes in land use and local government law.

For areas with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants, the city cannot be larger than 2 square miles — that’s 1,280 acres.

“The steps for incorporation are pretty minimal,” she said. “It’s just that population requirement and the territorial requirement, and then you need to get a certain number of signatures and then hold an election.”

It’s interesting to get a peek at the process for incorporating a city in Texas. I have no idea how often that happens these days, but I’d guess it’s relatively rare. Musk and SpaceX have been in Boca Chica Village for a few years now, and it’s been a mixed bag for the locals. Maybe this will be better for them. Assuming it happens before Musk’s attention span runs out, anyway.

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