An aerospace company, a vehicle manufacturer, a social network and even a laboratory that designs brain chips. But Elon Musk he wants more: now he is planning to build his own city in Texas. The tycoon has described the project, in meetings with landowners and real estate agents, as a kind of utopia where your employees could live and work, reported yesterday The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The city would be located on the outskirts of Austin, next to facilities -still under construction- of two of his companies: the SpaceX aerospace company and the Boring tunnel builder. In fact, he will call her after the mascot of the latter: Snailbrook (of snail, snail in English). When he launched this company, Musk challenged his employees to build drilling rigs that would go “faster than a snail.” A very Musk-esque joke.
It is not a simple idea. wsj reported that at the construction site there is already a group of modular houses, an outdoor sports area, a swimming pool and a gym. There are even signs hanging from the poles that say “Welcome to Snailbrook, Texas, Founded in 2021.”
Elon Musk’s new city will let him bypass some regulations
Entities linked to Musk’s companies have purchased more than 3,500 acres in the Austin area in the past three years. Is four times the size of New York’s Central Park, according to deeds and other records accessed by the US media. Other reports say that the billionaire would own about 2,500 hectares.
The plan would include at least 100 homes for SpaceX, Boring and Tesla workers, which last year opened one of its Gigafactories outside of Austin. Some Boring employees, including its president Steve Davis, had already mentioned plans to build a city. In a meeting with his employees last year, Davis told them to prepare even to elect mayor.
A city like this could allow Elon Musk to bypass state or federal regulations. In 2020, for example, Musk announced that he would move Tesla’s headquarters and personal residence from California to Texas, to get rid of the restrictions imposed in California during the coronavirus pandemic.
One of the proposals is that its employees can live in new houses and with rents below market prices. They would pay around $800, in an area where rents are around $2,200 a month, according to reports. W.S.J.
Texas law states that a town needs to have at least 201 residents to apply to be incorporated into a county. This recognition must be approved by a local judge. For now, the local authorities have not received any request in this regard from Musk or any of his companies.
