Texas, meet Elon Musk.
You are both strong thinkers, quick to take action, and both in your own way brash. And considering how you Texans evaluate individuals, it’s doubtful that Elon Musk is all bluster and no substance.
That’s because Musk has quite the project for the Lone Star State, planning a town – eventually maybe a city – for his nearby Austin-area employees, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Musk relocated significant elements of his Tesla, SpaceX, and Boring Company operations from California to Texas in recent years.
Current Musk Texas landholding statistics obtained by The Journal are unclear, but it appears he controls as much as 6,000 acres via limited liability businesses affiliated with him and his allies.
At least 3,500 acres were purportedly acquired by Musk-affiliated organizations, and this quantity appears to be certain. More than 200 acres in Bastrop County, southeast of Austin, are currently designated for a Planned home development called Snailbrook.
That name ties into the mascot of one of Musk’s businesses, the Boring Company, so-named because Musk wanted his people to develop a tunnel drilling machine that could move faster than a snail, The Journal explained.
Names for the 110-home planned community include calling the development “Project Amazing” in a county application and dubbing streets with alliterative names such as “Boring Boulevard,” “Cutterhead Crossing,” “Waterjet Way,” and “Porpoise Place.”
Then there’s the Tesla car plant called the “Giga” factory – 10 million square feet being built near Austin in Travis County. SpaceX and Boring are building warehousing facilities near the planned housing development.
A year ago, an internal corporate advertisement stated that employees of Boring would be able to rent two- or three-bedroom homes for as cheap as $800 per month, a significant savings compared to the local median rent of $2,200 per month.
Already on-site are modular homes, a gym, and outdoor sports facilities, as well as signage that read “Welcome to Snailbrook, Texas, established 2021.”
Musk is one of the most renowned California evacuees in recent years. Musk told The Journal in late 2021 that “overregulation, overlitigation, and overtaxation” pushed Boring and Tesla to relocate to Texas from California.
Musk apparently resides with a buddy in Austin pending the construction of his planned Texas residence.
Musk wanted assurances from the previous mayor of Austin, Steve Adler, in 2020 that he could conduct business with minimum interference from the government.
“What he wanted from the city was speed,” Adler said.
Once Musk began to relocate his activities, however, local government employees began to complain that Musk firms and contractors were pressuring them to expedite their work.
More on this story via The Western Journal:
But the Bastrop county director of tourism and economic development, Adena Lewis, dismissed that critique, noting that, “They’re very respectful of us. But they’re in a hurry.”CONTINUE READING…