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Boca Chica Village, Texas

Coordinates: 25°59′29″N 97°11′1″W / 25.99139°N 97.18361°W / 25.99139; -97.18361
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Boca Chica Village
Unincorporated community
Map
Coordinates: 25°59′29″N 97°11′1″W / 25.99139°N 97.18361°W / 25.99139; -97.18361
Country United States
StateTexas Texas
County Cameron
Kennedy Shores1967
Kopernik Shores1975
Elevation
[1]
3 ft (0.9 m)
Population
 (2000)
 • Total
26
Time zoneUTC-6 (CST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)
BridgesVeterans Bridge, B&M Bridge

Boca Chica Village or Kopernik Shores, formerly Kennedy Shores, is a small unincorporated community in Cameron County, Texas, United States, at the mouth of the Rio Grande. It was formed in the late 1960s, and is still extant as of 2021, although the village proper has changed greatly since 2018 as SpaceX came to purchase much of the land of the village. It lies 20 miles (32 km) east of the City of Brownsville on the Boca Chica peninsula, and forms part of the Brownsville–Harlingen–Raymondville and the Matamoros–Brownsville metropolitan areas. It is situated on Texas State Highway 4, immediately south of the South Bay lagoon, and is located about 2 mi (3.2 km) northwest of the mouth of the Rio Grande. Although the name Kopernik Shores is no longer in popular use, it remains its official name per the U.S. Board on Geographic Names,[2] and is still occasionally used in official contexts.

In 2014, the village was chosen as the location for the construction of a control facility for the SpaceX South Texas launch site, while the launch site itself was slated to be built just 2 miles further east, adjacent to Boca Chica State Park on the Texas Gulf Coast.[3][4] Flight testing—and even more frequent ground testing—of prototype rocket vehicles and rocket engines began in 2019.

In March 2021, Elon Musk announced plans to incorporate a new city to be called Starbase, Texas in the area. Starbase is planned to include the existing Boca Chica Village, the SpaceX test site and launch site, and more of the surrounding Boca Chica area.[5][6] In December 2024, SpaceX submitted a petition to Cameron County to formally incorporate the city of Starbase.[7]

Proposed renaming

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In May 2024, Cameron County submitted a formal proposal to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, to rename the Village from Kopernik Shores (still its official name for federal purposes, despite having fallen out of common use) to Starbase, which was publicly posted on their website in July 2024.[8] However, at the May 2024 meeting of the Board's Domestic Names Committee, doubts were expressed over whether the proposed name violates the Board's policy against recognising names intended to promote a commercial enterprise.[9] As of October 2024, the Board was awaiting feedback on the proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Texas Geographic Names Committee.[10]

History

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Early history

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The town was founded as Kennedy Shores in 1967 by John Caputa, a Chicagoan property developer, and was initially aimed at working-class Polish migrants.[11] After building a community of about 30 ranch-style houses, the settlement was devastated by Hurricane Beulah later that year, which destroyed the restaurant and public utility systems. Electricity was restored, but many of the homes did not have potable water even decades later.[12]

In 1975, local resident Stanley Piotrowicz was voted in as town mayor, who renamed the village Kopernik Shores after Nicolaus Copernicus, and attempted to have the village recognized as an incorporated community, but this was denied. In 1990 and 2000, the population was 26 people.[11] As of 2008, only six people were permanent residents of the village,[13] and that number was down to four people in two homes by 2017, with an average of approximately 12 seasonal residents.

SpaceX launch site

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Main article: SpaceX South Texas Launch Site

In 2012, private space exploration company SpaceX named the Boca Chica area as a possible location for the construction of their future private commercial launch site. SpaceX started buying land in Boca Chica in 2012.[14] In August 2014, SpaceX announced that they had selected the Boca Chica area as the location for their South Texas Launch Site, and that their "control center" would be within the village itself, while the launch complex would be located two miles (3.2 km) to the east. Limited construction began that year,[15][16] but more extensive construction activities did not begin until approximately 2018.

Flight testing of the SpaceX Starship with a newly designed Raptor rocket engine began in 2019 and has continued into 2021.[17] With the village only a few miles from the test site Cameron County officials—following launch test permitting requirements set by the US regulatory authority, the FAA—began in August 2019 to request residents to stand outside their homes during any tests that involve loading of propellant fuel, due to perceived danger from shock-wave induced broken windows in the event of a test anomaly and explosion.[18][19]

The site has been criticized as a "sacrifice zone." It was seen as empty space by both SpaceX and the state which is exemplified by Elon Musk saying ‘we’ve got a load of land with nobody around, so if it blows up, its cool’ in 2018.[20] At the time of its construction, many of the villagers’ homes were bought out with the threat of eminent domain. The launch site is an area where ‘negative externalities’ are located making it a sacrifice zone.[21][22]

In September 2019, SpaceX extended an offer to buy each of the houses in Boca Chica Village for three times the fair market value along with an offer of VIP invitations to future launch events. The amount of the offer was said to be "non-negotiable". Homeowners were initially given two weeks for that particular offer to remain valid.[23][24] Some Boca Chica property owners were happy with the offer and made plans to accept but other owners were not, noting that they had made substantial improvements to their properties and that the base valuation used by the September process used county tax assessment valuations and did not look at the specifics of each house so could not be a full appraised valuation.[25] The Houston Chronicle reported that the county seems to be taking a broader view of what is best for the "local economy, educational system, and quality of living in a region that is one of the poorest in the state."[25] Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. specifically mentioned consideration of the "450,000, 500,000 people that make up Cameron County, and the other million that make up the Valley, and also all the residents of Texas ... [though] it is terrible, personally, for those 10 or 20 remaining residential owners" in Boca Chica Village.[25] The New York Times reported in late September that SpaceX extended the original two-week offer period by three weeks, in order to allow property owners to work with the county appraiser in order to potentially get their assessed valuations adjusted upward based on improvements beyond what the previous appraisal understood.[26] Many residents[quantify] who accepted purchase offers had moved away by March 2020.[27]

A small number of house owners in Boca Chica Village did not accept the 2019 offer from SpaceX and remained in the village in October 2020, one year after the initial purchase offers from SpaceX were made to residents.[28]

"David Finlay, SpaceX’s Senior Director of Finance, told Boca Chica Village residents that this would be SpaceX’s final and best offer, and threatened the company would need to pursue alternate means to obtain the homes if the people of Boca Chica Village turned down the money. ... 'the scale and frequency of spaceflight activities at the site continue to accelerate, your property will frequently fall within established hazard zones in which no civilians will be permitted to remain, in order to comply with all federal and other public safety regulations. This email therefore represents SpaceX’s best and final purchase offer.'"[28]

Proposed incorporation into "Starbase", Texas

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Further information: Starbase, Texas

In March 2021, Elon Musk stated that he intends to incorporate Boca Chica Village into Starbase, Texas.[29] Eddie Treviño Jr, the County Judge of Cameron County, indicated then that the county's commissioners court "were informed of SpaceX's endeavor", and said that SpaceX "must abide by all state incorporation statutes".[6]

Starbase is planned to include the land in Boca Chica Village proper—where both the legacy house community and the SpaceX build site are located—as well as the land where the SpaceX test site and launch site is located, and more since Starbase is to be a municipality "much larger than Boca Chica."[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Kopernik Shores Populated Place Profile / Cameron County, Texas Data". TX HomeTownLocator. July 1, 2018. Archived from the original on July 15, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
  2. ^ "Kopernik Shores". Geographic Names Information System. December 31, 2003. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  3. ^ Perez-Treviño, Emma (February 19, 2014). "SpaceX continues local land purchases". Valley Morning Star. Retrieved February 19, 2014.[permanent dead link‍]
  4. ^ Wasson, Erik (February 9, 2019). "Trump border wall could split SpaceX's Texas launchpad in two". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on March 31, 2019. Retrieved March 31, 2019 – via Los Angeles Times.
  5. ^ a b "Elon Musk Wants To Set Up A City Named Starbase Around His Texas Rocket Launch Site". Forbes. March 3, 2021. Archived from the original on March 3, 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  6. ^ a b Bendix, Morgan McFall-Johnsen, Aria. "Elon Musk is trying to create a new city called 'Starbase' at SpaceX's Texas launch site". Business Insider. Archived from the original on March 3, 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Nazzaro, Miranda (December 13, 2024). "Musk's SpaceX moves to turn Starbase site into a Texas city". The Hill. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
  8. ^ "Quarterly Review List 456" (PDF). U.S. Board on Geographic Names. July 23, 2024.
  9. ^ Doyle, Michael (July 19, 2024). "Texans want to call area near Elon Musk's SpaceX 'Starbase.' A federal board isn't so sure". E&E News by POLITICO. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  10. ^ Lingle, Brandon (October 25, 2024). "Here's who's blocking Elon Musk's bid to rename land around SpaceX in South Texas as Starbase". San Antonio Express-News.
  11. ^ a b Garza, Alicia A. (June 15, 2010). "KOPERNIK SHORES, TX | The Handbook of Texas Online | Texas State Historical Association". TSHA. Archived from the original on October 1, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2014.
  12. ^ Martinez, Domingo (August 2016). "Countdown to Liftoff". Texas Monthly. Archived from the original on August 22, 2016. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  13. ^ "Boca Chica Village, formerly Kopernik Shores, Texas". TexasEscapes.com. February 9, 2008. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved February 6, 2014.
  14. ^ Journal, Nancy Keates and Mark Maremont | Photographs by Phil Kline for The Wall Street (May 7, 2021). "Elon Musk's SpaceX Is Buying Up a Texas Village. Homeowners Cry Foul". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on May 7, 2021. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
  15. ^ Leinfelder, Andrea (January 11, 2018). "Aerospace talent in Texas Lauded". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on July 15, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
  16. ^ Nield, George C. (May 2014). Draft Environmental Impact Statement: SpaceX Texas Launch Site (PDF) (Report). Vol. 1. Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Commercial Space Transportation. pp. 3–32–3–34. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved August 13, 2020. sources explicitly quoted from the FAA document include reference to Garza 2012b; Garza and Long 2012b; Hildebrand 1950; Garcia 2003
  17. ^ Timmer, John (May 5, 2021). "SpaceX successfully lands a Starship test flight". arstechnica.com. Archived from the original on May 5, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  18. ^ Foust, Jeff (August 27, 2019). "SpaceX's Starhopper completes test flight". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on November 26, 2021. Retrieved August 28, 2019. SpaceX's South Texas site is unusual in that people live within a few kilometers of what the company eventually plans to be an orbital spaceport, in a subdivision called Boca Chica Village that predates the site by decades. Residents of the subdivision reported on social media that they were informed by local law enforcement to stand outside of their homes during the test, in the event an explosion created a shock wave that could break windows.
  19. ^ Martinez, Laura B (August 24, 2019). "Residents receive alert on SpaceX testing". The Brownsville Herald. Archived from the original on August 26, 2019. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  20. ^ Keates, N.; Maremont, M. (May 7, 2021). "Elon Musk's SpaceX is Buying Up a Texas Village". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on May 7, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
  21. ^ Klinger, Julie Michelle (2021). "Environmental geopolitics and outer space". Geopolitics. 26 (3): 666–703. doi:10.1080/14650045.2019.1590340. S2CID 150443847.
  22. ^ Dunnett, Oliver; Klinger, Julie; Maclaren, Andrew; Lane, Maria; Sage, Daniel (2019). "Geographies of Outer Space: Progress and New Opportunities". Progress in Human Geography. 43 (2): 314–366. doi:10.1177/0309132517747727. hdl:2164/11959. S2CID 149382358. Archived from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  23. ^ Masunaga, Samantha (October 1, 2019). "To reach Mars, SpaceX is trying to buy up a tiny Texas community". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 6, 2019. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  24. ^ "SpaceX launch pad transforms tiny Texas neighborhood: "Where the hell do I go now?"". CBS News. September 18, 2019. Archived from the original on September 20, 2019. Retrieved September 19, 2019.
  25. ^ a b c Leinfelder, Andrea (October 9, 2019). "The question in Boca Chica: Do you take Elon Musk's money and run?". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on October 9, 2019. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  26. ^ Chang, Kenneth (September 29, 2019). "SpaceX Unveils Silvery Vision to Mars: 'It's Basically an I.C.B.M. That Lands'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 9, 2020. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
  27. ^ "Boca Chica residents take Elon Musk's money, make way for SpaceX launches from Texas". Houston Chronicle. March 18, 2020. Archived from the original on March 20, 2020. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
  28. ^ a b Gault, Matthew (October 2, 2020). "SpaceX Is Trying to Force Residents Out of a Small Texas Village". Vice. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  29. ^ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (March 2, 2021). "Creating the city of Starbase, Texas" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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