Elon Musk has reportedly bought thousands of acres of land about 35 miles outside of Austin and plans to build his own town there for employees to live and work.
The Wall Street Journal reports Musk has described the city as a “sort of Texas utopia along the Colorado River.” By creating the town, Musk would be able to set some of the city’s regulations. Last year, at an all-hands meeting of Boring employees, president Steve Davis reportedly talked about holding an election for mayor of the city.
The proposed municipality is said to be adjacent to the Boring and SpaceX facilities that are currently under construction, and to already include some modular homes and signs hang from poles reading “welcome, snailbrook, tx, est. 2021”
Snailbrook is the name of Boring’s mascot.
Musk reportedly wants to offer rental houses to workers that are well below the local market value. One ad allegedly put the price of a two- or three-bedroom home at $800, compared to $2,200 a month in nearby Bastrop, Texas. There are also plans for a Montessori school in the municipality
Texas law requires an area to have at least 201 residents before it can incorporate. Plans, which the Journal shows in its story, call for the construction of 110 more homes in the area where Snailbrook is located.
Over the past three years, entities tied to Musk have bought at least 3,500 acres in the general Austin area. The Journal says some reports indicate Musk controls as much as 6,000 acres.
Musk first came to Texas two years ago, abandoning California and calling it the land of “overregulation, overlitigation, overtaxation.” Last month, though, Tesla announced plans to expand its California presence, moving its engineering headquarters to the state.
Should Musk be building his own city, he won’t be the only Texas billionaire to own a town. In 2021, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban purchased the entire town of Mustang, Texas for an undisclosed amount.
The city had been for sale since 2017, originally with an asking price of $4 million. It eventually dropped to $2 million, but still couldn’t find a buyer. Mustang is located about an hour south of Dallas in Navarro County, right off of Interstate 45. At 77 acres, though, it’s nothing close to what Musk reportedly has in mind.
