Gateway to Mars

Starbase Watch · October 20, 2026

Starbase's first Highway 4 annexation hearing is Friday.

The City of Starbase holds its first hearing on annexing 123.17 acres of Highway 4 on Friday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m. Commissioners also vote on overtime rules for the city's police officers.

Starbase agenda items listing the first public hearings on annexing a 2.01-acre city-owned tract and 123.17 acres of State Highway 4 right-of-way, and a 14-day work period for police officersStarbase agenda, Oct. 23, 2026

Background photo: NASA.

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Starbase Watch

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Highway 4 running past a tall gray SpaceX building and hangars at Starbase under a partly cloudy sky

Friday: Starbase's first hearing on annexing 123 acres of Highway 4

Plus a vote on overtime rules for the city's police officers. File photo: Highway 4 at Starbase, June 2021, Alexander Hatley, CC BY 2.0.

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Shrimp boats heading single file down the wide Brownsville Ship Channel, with flat green marsh on both banks

Tuesday: the Port board votes on four SpaceX agreements

Two easements, an MOU and a "Route Use Agreement," terms not posted. Plus the city's $27 million borrowing notice. File photo: U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, 2014.

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Aerial map east of Brownsville marking the 444-acre site in white, with a red pin for SpaceX's pending power and concrete plant permits

State records list SpaceX's planned "Boca Chica Facility" as power generation

A pending air permit, plus a concrete plant "to provide concrete to the new construction of the Boca Chica Facility," inside the 444 acres.

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