Elon Musk Plans to Create 'His Own City' in Texas... Submits Petition for Municipality Establishment

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is planning to build his own city in Texas, USA.

According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 24th (local time), employees of Musk's space company SpaceX, located at the southern tip of Texas in the Boca Chica area, recently submitted a petition along with signatures for the formation of a new municipality.

The plan is to establish a small city with the same name as the SpaceX exclusive spaceport 'Starbase' and elect a mayor through an election.

The city will cover an area of 1.5 square miles (about 3.9 km²), with around 500 residents, including about 100 children, most of whom are SpaceX employees.

The petition submitted to the Cameron County Court this month also included that Gunnar Milburn, SpaceX's head of security, would run for mayor.

While it is unclear what practical benefits there are to building his own 'corporate city,' Musk has expressed his desire to make Starbase a 'Starbase City' for several years, according to the NYT.

To create a city, there must be a certain number of residents, so it did not lead to concrete actions at the time.

However, over the years, many SpaceX employees have moved to the area around Starbase by renting temporary housing, seemingly meeting the requirements for city construction.

If all legal requirements are met, the court must approve an election for the establishment of a new municipality, the NYT pointed out.

Eddie Treviño Jr., a judge at the Cameron County Court, stated that a legal review is underway, and if there are no issues, a mayoral election could be held next year.

The NYT predicted that if an election is held, "Musk himself is likely to participate as a voter," noting that "he did not sign the petition but has a residence in Cameron County and said he voted there last month."

Musk may also attempt to build corporate cities in other areas besides Starbase. The development of the Bastrop area near Austin, Texas, is already being considered to house employees.

The NYT added that the area includes a SpaceX manufacturing plant and the headquarters of the tunnel construction company Boring Company, and soon the office of the social media company X (formerly Twitter) will also be established.

Gojung Sam, Hankyung.com reporter jsk@hankyung.com