The vote was 212 to 6. On Saturday, May 3, 2025, residents around SpaceX’s rocket site in South Texas approved turning the area into the City of Starbase, and by the time the polls closed at 7 p.m., Cameron County election officials said early voting alone had settled it, the Texas Tribune reported.
Only 283 people lived inside the proposed city limits and could vote. A Texas Newsroom analysis of the voter rolls found that two-thirds of them either worked for SpaceX or had already said they backed the idea. The three candidates for city leadership ran unopposed, and all had ties to the company. Residents elected SpaceX manager Bobby Peden as mayor, according to AFP reporting carried by DW.
Elon Musk marked the result on X, first with a single spaced-out word, “S T A R B A S E,” and later with “Starbase, Texas is now a real city!” At the site itself, the night was quiet after a gray, rainy day. No fireworks, no street parties. A few people drank at the Astropub, a bar for SpaceX employees.
Who voted no
Dissent was thin. One couple who live in the old beach village and do not work for SpaceX told the Tribune they voted against. “I’m sure we’re the only ones out here who did,” the woman said, declining to give her name.
A few dozen activists spent the afternoon at Boca Chica Beach instead, arguing the company had damaged sensitive habitats and ignored the cultural importance of the land. They brought an Elon Musk pinata. “These hills here are sacred to us,” said Juan Mancias, chair of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, had warned AFP before the vote of more “destruction” to wildlife habitat and of more shaking from rocket operations.
What incorporation changes
The new city covers about 3.75 square kilometres near the plant that builds Starship, and roughly 500 people live there, on land mostly owned by SpaceX or its employees. Enough employees had signed a petition by February to force the election.
Starbase leaders said the change would give them control over roads and utilities the community already ran, and let them approve construction themselves. Cameron County had earlier rejected plans for more housing for SpaceX staff. The city can now handle building and permitting, collect taxes and write local laws, and could adopt zoning more lenient than the county’s. Starbase Manager Kathryn Lueders told Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino in a letter that incorporation would “streamline the processes required to build the amenities necessary to make the area a world class place to live.”
There is a trade-off for the company: as a government, Starbase falls under state open-meetings and public-records laws.
The beach was the next fight. Boca Chica Beach must be cleared whenever a rocket is tested, and SpaceX was asking regulators to raise launches from about five to 25 a year. Cameron County commissioners decide when it closes. A bill backed by SpaceX, already passed by the Texas Senate and awaiting a House vote, would hand weekday closure authority to Starbase’s city commissioners. The county commissioners opposed it, saying they worked well with SpaceX and saw no reason to change.
Sources
- SpaceX workers in South Texas vote yes to create City of Starbase – The Texas Tribune
- Texas town home to SpaceX renamed 'Starbase' – DW (citing AFP)
