Previously, SpaceX announced plans to transform Boca Chica, Texas, where it has its main launch pad, into the Starbase space town. But to do this, she needs to get consent to resettlement from residents who are not yet eager to leave their homes. And this poses a big problem for SpaceX since the company is limited in development, but it can also get into an unpleasant story if something goes wrong with the next rocket launch.

Some locals have sold their holdings to SpaceX. The company housed its employees in these houses. The rest of the residents of Boca Chica do not want to part with their real estate. In the area where rockets with a deafening roar rise into the sky and sometimes fall, there are about 30 small ranch houses. It’s hard to understand why SpaceX needs residential buildings, but it is assumed that the company wants not to worry about the safety of people living near the launch site.

Recall that the Boca Chica village SpaceX wants to make part of the planned Starbase city, home to SpaceX employees and their families. To include the village in Starbase, SpaceX needs to prove that more than 200 people live in the area, and most of them agree with the company’s intentions. If SpaceX gets what it wants, it can drive the dissenters out of the village. The company will control the local police, as well as gain legal authority over the only road leading to the village, and will be able to block it at its discretion.

Since Elon Musk founded SpaceX in a converted Southern California warehouse, the company has expanded to 8,000 employees and acquired manufacturing facilities in Florida, Texas, and Washington. In Boca Chica, the company is developing a new large Super Heavy rocket that will take people to the Moon and Mars.

Officials in Cameron County, where the village of Boca Chica is located, say they are not partnering with SpaceX to evict people from their homes. They show their support for the company, but they don’t want SpaceX to succeed at the expense of the local community. Officials say they will not allow SpaceX to take over the Boca Chica highway and beach.

However, the county has not granted building permits to villagers in recent years. But SpaceX, as it became known from public documents, has received numerous permits to repair the houses it owns, in which the company’s employees live. In addition, the county allowed SpaceX to close access to the beach and the only road leading to Boca Chica. The company can close these facilities for 300 hours a year.

SpaceX began buying land in the Boca Chica area in 2012 and laid the foundation for the launch pad in 2014. According to residents, until 2019, the company’s activity was tolerable, as long as it launched up to 12 missiles a year. After that, the previously quiet place turned into a Super Heavy fabrication and testing site, and the influx of workers began.

Boca Chica residents say SpaceX is offering five times the real value for their homes. However, not everyone wants to leave. People who refuse to leave the village report that company representatives are threatening that they will need to take an “alternative approach” to ensure that spacecraft launches and tests are carried out following public safety requirements.

According to public figures, SpaceX has already bought 112 plots of land in the village. The company parked Airstream trailers on the driveway and began building structures around the village.

When SpaceX launches its flying vehicles, sometimes it gets into trouble. A few months ago, a rocket explosion shattered windows in the village houses and set off a forest fire. None of the residents were injured then, but the likelihood of this is quite high. Obviously, SpaceX wants to evict the villagers to avoid unpleasant incidents. However, it is still difficult to judge how the situation will develop if some of them flatly refused to leave their homes.