In recent years, Elon Musk has been quietly buying up a small Texas neighborhood so he can build his own little village near Tesla, SpaceX and the Boring Companies, The Post can confirm.
Located in Bastrop, just outside the Austin city limits, Musk has spent millions buying land in the quaint town in hopes he can avoid big-city regulations. wall street journal informed earlier.
Located next to the Colorado River, their vision is to create their own utopia where their employees can live and work.
But while locals are happy about the new opportunity that has arrived on their doorstep, they are wary of what it will mean for the charming small town they have called home for most of their lives.
Anna O’Neill grew up in the city, riding horses with her sister Molly. His parents, Michael and Linda Waxman, were among those who recently sold their longtime estate to Musk, which includes more than 100 acres among the thousands he has acquired.
His sister still lives on the portion that Musk also bought, but she is not required to leave until 2024.
O’Neill said the city was at first shocked to learn that Musk had chosen his little slice of paradise as the site for his factories and companies. But over the years, he didn’t realize that it would also mean giving up his own wealth.
“My parents were really close with all the neighbors down the street. So if one person in the community sold, all of you would have to,” O’Neill, 30, told the Post, adding that her Grandpa had raised greyhounds on the farm for years.
“The land belonged to my grandparents and then was inherited by my mother,” she said. “They’re working to get my parents out of that property at the end of the month so they can start working on it. So nothing’s done yet. We’re still trying to get out of the property.” are doing.
“There’s definitely a lot of history. He has a lot of memories like training dogs. He built this whole farming community out there,” O’Neill said of his grandfather. “So I think it’s a little sad because we’ve been going through her kind of things and picking and choosing — to get out of the property.”
O’Neill acknowledged that when Musk’s team approached his family to buy the land, they were told it would be used for housing the workers, not the city.
musk called journal report He is building a “false” city on Friday.
While photos obtained by The Post show that the land is still in the early days of the construction process, it already has a few modular homes, an outdoor play area, a pool and a gym.
In Texas, for a city to be incorporated, it needs to have at least 201 residents. The Bostrop County Commissioner’s Office is yet to receive a submission from Musk in this regard.
The Journal reported that entities affiliated with Musk’s companies or executives have purchased at least 3,500 acres of land in the Austin area. It is equivalent to four times the size of New York’s Central Park. It was rumored that he also owned over 6,500 acres of land in the Lone Star State.
“It was a shock when we found out it was going to be a real city,” she said. “I came to know about this from an Instagram post. I didn’t know this would be a possibility. I hear he wants to appoint a mayor as well.
Musk initially fled California to Texas to avoid tough regulations. In December 2021 he also referred to the Golden State as a place of “overregulation, overlitigation, overtaxation”.
Meanwhile, Texas has fewer zoning laws and loosely regulated land. Unlike California, it has no corporate income tax or capital gains tax.
Floor plans filed in Bastrop County Commissioner’s Court in January show Musk’s vision of Snellbrook Village in reference to the Boring Company mascot.
A map obtained by The Post shows Snellbrook will have 110 residences at Boring Boulevard, Waterjet Way, Porpoise Place and Cutterhead Crossing.
O’Neal said, “My dad’s perspective, it’s just nice to turn over a new leaf.” “My parents are buying different properties with the money and reinvesting it. So… it’s been fun.
Her parents still own their 4,500-square-foot home in Bastrop. And the city is still quite small.
O’Neal’s parents were from big cities—her mother, Linda, is from Austin, and her father, Michael, is from New York. Both were in the film business and lived in Los Angeles for several years before coming to Texas to inherit the ranch.
O’Neill tells WebMD that when she was young, there used to be only Walmart and stoplights. Now they’ve added a Chick-fil-A, she says.
In Bastrop, Musk’s SpaceX is building a 500,000-square-foot facility, and at State Street 1209, Boring — Musk’s infrastructure and tunneling company — is building a new warehouse.
“There was a little pause on what this would mean for our community,” O’Neill said. “We’re still a small town at heart here. It was a big change. I think there’s still a little bit of fear, or not fear, but rather anticipation — seeing what’s to come, because things are changing so fast.
“And of course he builds it so quickly. I mean, the Tesla factory went up overnight which feels like how big it was.
In the end, O’Neill said the process has been bitter.
“There’s a little bit of nervousness, but there’s also a kind of relief,” O’Neill said. “My parents now have the money to buy other property a little further outside the city limits to continue living a small farm life.”
The Post has reached out to Musk and the Bastrop County Commissioner’s Court for comment.
Meanwhile, the idea of living in a irregular, private city Or the city has grown in popularity in recent years.
Praxis is one of the new projects partially funded by Peter Thiel. The goal is to build a city outside the United States and free from government control.