SpaceX's town in Texas warns residents may lose property rights
Homer Pompa has lived in a rural area on Texas's southernmost tip, near the U.S.-Mexico border, for more than a half-century. Since 2014, the 75-year-old Brownsville native has watched his tiny coastal community transform into ground zero for Elon Musk's SpaceX and its billion-dollar effort to colonize Mars.
Then, last month, more than 200 people — many of them SpaceX employees — voted to turn Pompa's parcel of land and parts of unincorporated Boca Chica Village into a city named Starbase. Weeks later, the disabled Vietnam War veteran received a letter from the newly created city informing him that he is at risk of losing the 'right to continue using your property for its current use' as the city reviews its zoning.
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