SpaceX wants to turn Starbase into a city. Judge Treviño explains what happens next.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr., has responded to a request from SpaceX to turn its Boca Chica rocket building facility into a city.

Kathryn Lueders, the SpaceX general manager at Starbase wrote to Treviño on Dec. 12 requesting an election of qualified voters to determine whether Starbase should be incorporated as a a Type-C municipality. 

Treviño responded: “On Thursday, December 12, 2024, Cameron County received a petition from SpaceX requesting an election to incorporate Starbase as a Type-C Municipality. The County will review the petition for completeness and compliance with the statutory requirements for incorporation.”

Treviño said that once the review has been completed for compliance with the statutory requirements, Texas law requires the call for an election for incorporation of Starbase. 

“The registered voters in the proposed Starbase area will have an opportunity to vote on whether to incorporate as Starbase, Texas. Once an election is concluded and the canvassing confirmed, the Cameron County Commissioners Court will confirm and ratify the election,” Treviño said.

He added: “The Office of the County Judge will work with the Civil Legal Division and the Election Office to review the petition and supporting documentation to ensure compliance with any and all statutory requirements before proceeding.”

A Type C general law municipality in Texas is a city or town that operates under a commission form of government and has a governing body called the commission. The commission is made up of a mayor and two commissioners, who serve two-year terms. However, the term of office can be extended to up to four years if elected. 

To incorporate as a Type C general law municipality, a community must meet the following requirements:

• Be an unincorporated city, town, or village
• Have a population of 201–4,999
• Meet the territorial requirements of Section 5.901 
  

Residents can initiate the incorporation process by filing a written petition with the county judge. The petition must be signed by at least ten percent of the community’s qualified voters.”

Here is a copy of Lueders’ letter to Judge Treviño:

December 12, 2024

Dear Judge Treviño,

On behalf of the entire Starbase community, I am pleased to submit this petition requesting an election to determine whether Starbase, Texas, should be incorporated as a city.

Starbase is home to the development and production of SpaceX’s Starship, a project designed to fundamentally alter humanity’s access to space. We are investing billions in infrastructure and generating hundreds of millions in income and taxes for local businesses and government, all with the goal of making South Texas the Gateway to Mars.

SpaceX is proud to play a major role in the South Texas and Cameron County communities, which are home to thousands of our employees, with several hundred living at Starbase. To continue growing the workforce necessary to rapidly develop and manufacture Starship, we need the ability to grow Starbase as a community. That is why we are requesting that Cameron County call an election to enable the incorporation of Starbase as the newest city in the Rio Grande Valley.

Incorporating Starbase will streamline the processes required to build the amenities necessary to make the area a world class place to live — for the hundreds already calling it home, as well as for prospective workers eager to help build humanity’s future in space. As you know, through agreements with the County, SpaceX currently performs several civil functions around Starbase due to its remote location, including management of the roads, utilities, and the provision of schooling and medical care for the residents. Incorporation would move the management of some of these functions to a more appropriate public body.

We want to emphasize that incorporation will have no impact on SpaceX’s commitment to being a science-backed steward of the local environment, nor on the extensive list of environmental mitigations developed in conjunction with state and federal agencies to minimize the impact of operations at Starbase. We will also continue our efforts to be a force for good in the area by funding public works projects in the County, supporting the conservation of local flora and fauna, and contributing to organizations like the Friends of Laguna Atascosa NWR Adopt-an-Ocelot Program, the Peregrine Fund, and the Gladys Porter Zoo. SpaceX and its Starbase employees and residents are already taking an active role in improving the environment, with quarterly cleanups of Boca Chica Beach and State Highway 4, and partnerships with Sea Turtle Inc. to find and transport injured sea turtles to the local nonprofit’s facilities for treatment. SpaceX also fosters environmental education at the local level by hosting school tours and an Annual Environmental Education Day, in collaboration with Texas Parks and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and Sea Turtle Inc. 

Starbase is a one-of-a-kind location for manufacturing, testing, and launching the most advanced rocket and spaceships ever conceived — a fully and rapidly reusable system that paves the way for humanity’s return to the Moon and eventual travel to Mars. We look forward to continuing its transformation into a world-class hub for the men and women working to make life multiplanetary.

Finally, we would like to express our sincerest gratitude for Cameron County’s support, guidance, and partnership over the years. We believe incorporation will only strengthen and deepen our commitment and ties to the area.

Ad astra,

Kathryn Lueders

General Manager, Starbase

Good corporate citizen

---

At a conference co-hosted by GBIC and SelectUSA in July 2022, Judge Treviño said SpaceX was becoming a good corporate citizen.

By way of example, Treviño pointed to the help SpaceX provided when 3,000 endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles were saved during the Big Freeze of February 2021. Another example, he said, was when the City of Los Indios lost power and SpaceX sent a generator.

“They are becoming, I think, a good member of the community. A lot of that stuff doesn’t get advertised or well-known because the focus, obviously, is on their business operations. But, I think they are committed to being a good corporate citizen,” Treviño said.

The conference was titled, “The Future of Aerospace, Defense & Energy.” Click here to read and hear about the conference.

The post SpaceX wants to turn Starbase into a city. Judge Treviño explains what happens next. appeared first on Rio Grande Guardian.