--- title: "Elon Musk’s New Company Town Tells Residents Their Rights Are Now Optional" description: "SpaceX now has its own company town — and the Elon Musk-owned company is already trying to mess with its residents' rights" date: "2025-05-31" modified: "2025-05-31" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-spacex-company-town-rights" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Off-World" - "Space" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "property" - "SpaceX" - "starbase" --- # Elon Musk’s New Company Town Tells Residents Their Rights Are Now Optional ![SpaceX now has its own company town — and the Elon Musk-owned company is already trying to mess with its residents' rights]() *\Image: Sergio Flores / AFP via Getty / Futurism\* As if it weren't bad enough that [SpaceX now has its own company town](), the Elon Musk-owned company is almost immediately trying to mess with its residents' property rights. In a [memo leaked to *CNBC*](), the newly-formed town of Starbase, Texas informed people who own or live on land located within the company town's limits that they may "lose the right to continue using" their property "for its current use" thanks to proposed zoning restrictions. On June 23, Starbase's City Commission is holding, per the letter, a public hearing to draw its zoning map, which will break down how the roughly 1.6-square-mile town will carve up the land it now controls. What's more, residents will only have 72 hours before that hearing to preview Starbase's proposed zoning map, which will include how it plans to break down its "mixed-use district" that will include "residential, office, retail, and small-scale service uses." As the [*Texas Tribune* reported earlier this month](), estimates taken prior to Starbase's incorporation found that the land had about 500 people living on it, with a bit over half of them being SpaceX employees. While it's unclear how many of those residents own the property on which they live, the effect remains the same: that many, if not most, are facing having their land snatched from them by Musk's multi-billion-dollar spaceflight company. The vote to officially incorporate Starbase into a city was, according to that *Tribune* article, only available to some 283 residents living within the proposed city limits. In a landslide victory, 212 voted in favor of incorporation, while just six opposed. Now, the vast majority who voted in favor of the town's creation are at risk of losing their property thanks to the decision. It remains unclear exactly what would happen to the property owners and tenants if and when Starbase claims it. To us, however, it sounds a lot like the constitutionally-enshrined doctrine of eminent domain, in which the government can seize private property for public use, regardless of the owner's will, so long as it pays them "[just compensation]()" determined by current market values. As people opposed to the incorporation told the *Tribune*, there are also concerns that Starbase becoming an official city could pave the way for [Musk to gain control]() over the public Boca Chica Beach, which [environmental]() and [indigenous advocates]() alike oppose due to the [damage SpaceX launches have done]() to its delicate ecosystem. "These hills here are sacred to us," Juan Mancias, the chair of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, told the *Tribune*. "\[SpaceX and Musk\] don’t know the history of the land, and they’re trying to erase that." **More on SpaceX:** [*If NASA Had Blown Up This Many Rockets, The Government Would Have Cancelled the Space Program*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()