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In the summer of 2012, SpaceX were looking to expand their rocket launching business
outside of Florida.
At the time, the company had only flown their Falcon 9 rocket a handful of times.
But with a rapidly increasing launch schedule, an additional launch site was required to
meet their needs.
They started looking at a small village in Texas called Boca Chica where they could start
building their own private spaceport.
Boca Chica is a tiny community in Cameron County, made up of just 35 houses.
For years, it has been the dream spot for retirees and vacationers, with waterfront
properties - far away from civilization.
The village is located on such a quiet and untouched peace of land that water must be
trucked into the community once a month.
Basic errands like grocery shopping requires a 40 minute commute into the nearest city
of Brownsville.
This raises the question, why would SpaceX choose such a poor and desolate part of the
country to start building their future spaceport?
Despite the lack of basic infrastructure or a skilled workforce, the quiet town of Boca
Chica actually had a lot to offer SpaceX.
Along with the abundance of cheap land and nearby access to the sea, Boca Chica also
had a low population density, making it the perfect location to launch and land rockets.
The state of Texas was also offering a $15 million incentive for them to build their
spaceport in Texas.
So SpaceX chose Boca Chica as their future spaceport and broke ground in 2014.
Although the Falcon 9’s launch schedule was at an all time high, several years went
by without any construction at the site.
By this point, many assumed that SpaceX had changed their mind about building
their new spaceport in Boca Chica.
But life in the little town of Boca Chica was about to change forever.
In December 2018, a local resident shared an image of a new structure at the SpaceX site.
These images quickly spread around the space community and many suggested that the structure
could in fact be the beginnings of SpaceX's new Starship rocket.
At the time, this seemed like a crazy theory and most people assumed that this was simply
a new water tower being built for the site.
But after rounds of speculation, SpaceX revealed that this structure really was the beginnings
of a rocket called Starhopper - designed as an early test bed for Starship.
As the months went on, SpaceX’s presence in the community grew and soon they were ready
to test Starhopper.
With local residents documenting every move, Starhopper took to the sky in a spectacular show,
coming back down to land under its own propulsion.
While this test was a major achievement for SpaceX, it didn’t come without its disturbances.
During the test, residents had to remain outside of their homes to avoid getting injured by
shattering windows.
As the weeks went on, it was clear that SpaceX couldn’t increase the scale of their tests
without putting the residents in danger.
So SpaceX began the process of buying out the entire town and sent letters to residents
offering to buy their house for three times the market value.
Although many residents accepted the offer, many understandably declined and refused to
give up their dream life to a company that could easily offer so much more.
With an average property value of around $80,000, SpaceX would have spent at least $8.5 million
to buyout every house.
But for the residents that were being pressured to move, even a triple-value offer wouldn’t
be enough to find a similar home in a different location.
While SpaceX doesn't have the right to kick residents out of their homes, the County does.
And while the County wants to avoid evicting people from their homes, they have an opportunity
to create a thriving industry and provide high paying jobs to one of the most economically
depressed regions of the country.
This is where eminent domain comes in.
Texas law states that “private property may only be taken by a government or private
entity that is authorized to do so,” meaning that Cameron County could give SpaceX the
right to seize the properties.
However, these legal requirements also state that seizing any property must only occur
for a purpose that benefits the general public.
While Texas does not allow eminent domain for the benefit of private landowners, there
is an alternative which would involve SpaceX giving the land over to the government.
This would not be ideal for SpaceX since they would risk losing control over their first
privately owned spaceport.
SpaceX decided to extend their deadline and increase offers
for some of the remaining residents.
Some residents were able to get their homes reevaluated since SpaceX hadn’t taken into
account the loss of business for residents that were using their homes as an AirBnB.
As of March, seven houses remain unsold to SpaceX and the negotiations could continue
to go on for much longer.
SpaceX will likely do everything they can to purchase the remaining properties and claim
the village to themselves.
SpaceX recently hired hundreds of new workers to create a constant 24 hour production line.
Although the residents of Boca Chica were essentially forced to give up their dream life,
it will hopefully be an important sacrifice for the exciting future that SpaceX
are trying to create for everyone.
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