Jump to content

SpaceX Gives Deadline For Boca Chica Village Residents to Sell

Doc Reeves

By Doc Reeves
in Daily Texan

 Share

Recommended Posts

Doc Reeves

Doc Reeves 6434

Posted
Posted (edited)

I’m familiar with the Boca Chica Village area because my dad and I have volunteered for charities building and fixing homes for people in the area. It’s pretty poor. 

TLDR: So, SpaceX wants the people with homes to sell or they will be forced to buy their houses in other ways so they can build a hotel/resort. Their gulf-side prop value is very low and SpaceX offered 150k for their homes valued at appx 50k. Still, they are 1.5 miles from the only undeveloped beach in TX, some with 3 and 4 bedroom homes. The thing the holdouts say is they want to be able to live in a similar house 1.5 miles from the beach somewhere/anywhere else in TX and that’s not enough to do that.

Sounds exactly like when they built the Alamo Dome here in SA. Those people are gonna get proper fucked so SpaceX can build a resort for tourists who visit their launch site. 
 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3ep4y/spacex-is-trying-to-force-residents-out-of-a-small-texas-village

SpaceX Is Trying to Force Residents Out of a Small Texas Village

Two residents of Boca Chica Village, Texas, say that SpaceX has given them a Friday deadline to accept an offer to buy their homes.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is trying to force longtime residents out of their homes in the small community of Boca Chica Village, Texas. Boca Chica Village is up the road from SpaceX’s Texas launch center and representatives from the company have given residents until Friday to accept the most recent offer on their home. The homeowners tell Motherboard that SpaceX’s offers are insultingly low and that they aren’t budging.

SpaceX has been trying to buy property owned by the people of Boca Chica Village for more than a year. It initially offered residents what it said was three times the appraised value of their homes—roughly $150,000. Some people took the money, but many others said no. SpaceX then reduced the offer to two times the home's appraised value. The beach is part of a wildlife preserve and is one of the only undeveloped beaches in Texas. The community is near SpaceX's Launch Facility.

Then VICE TV aired a documentary about Boca Chica and the community’s clash with Musk. After the documentary aired, SpaceX reached out to the remaining residents again and once again promised them three times the appraised value of their homes to leave, according to the email obtained by VICE. In an email obtained by VICE, David Finlay, SpaceX’s Senior Director of Finance, told Boca Chica Village residents that this would be SpaceX’s final and best offer and threatened the company would need to pursue alternate means to obtain the homes if the people of Boca Chica Village turned down the money.

Finlay sent emails to the Boca Chica holdouts this week and spoke with some of them on the phone. “As follow up to our recent discussions, I am writing to confirm SpaceX’s offer to purchase your property,” Finlay’s email said. “I note that this past weekend marked the one-year anniversary of SpaceX’s initial offer to purchase your property. During that time, SpaceX has endeavored to ensure a fair and equitable process for all residents located within the designated South Texas Spaceport at Boca Chica Beach.”

“In addition to the tremendous community support SpaceX has received, I have enjoyed getting to know you personally over the last year. It’s been a pleasure to learn about your connection to

the area, answer your questions, review the basis for the purchase offer, and share information on the public safety requirements associated with launch operations,” the email said. “As we have discussed, as the scale and frequency of spaceflight activities at the site continue to accelerate, your property will frequently fall within established hazard zones in which no civilians will be permitted to remain, in order to comply with all federal and other public safety regulations. This email therefore represents SpaceX’s best and final purchase offer.”

“I turned down the offer because it’s not enough,” Boca Chica Village resident Celia Garcia said on the phone. “I don’t want to become a millionaire or get rich...I just want enough so that I can go to another coastal area a mile and half from the ocean, buy a three bedroom brick ranch like I have now.”

“I’m not saying it’s worth a lot, but for that amount of money you can’t find anything close to this,” Boca Chica Village resident Mary Bloomer said on the phone. “We’re not asking for a million dollars.”

Garcia didn’t buy Finlay’s argument that Boca Chica Village is in a dangerous space. Both she and Bloomer said that SpaceX has remodeled and repainted some of the homes other people sold last year. They said that sometimes SpaceX employees stay in these homes.

Garcia said that Finlay told her on the phone that the FAA was involved. “He said this has been declared a dangerous area by the FAA,” she said. “If it’s a dangerous area, why are they remodeling the homes they purchased instead of demolishing them? Why are they putting in a new septic system? Why did they advertise for a project coordinator to make this into a resort area with a bar and restaurant? Are they willing to endanger everybody else except us?”

According to a job posting on Greenhouse, SpaceX is currently looking for a Resort Development Manager. “SpaceX is committed to developing revolutionary space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets,” the posting said. “Boca Chica Village is our latest launch site dedicated to Starship, our next generation launch vehicle.”

“I don’t see how they can even justify kicking us out for his little resort idea,” Bloomer said. “If we were to buy land [in the area] we couldn’t build because the county has all kind of restrictions. But they can do whatever they want.”

Finlays email gave a hard deadline for the residents of Boca Chica Village to sell their homes. “The offer will expire on October 2, 2020,” the email said. “Please be advised that should this offer expire, SpaceX may need to pursue alternative approaches to ensuring that launch operations within the State designated South Texas Spaceport at Boca Chica Beach can be conducted within all necessary public safety requirements.”

Both Garcia and Bloomer said they’re not opposed to moving, they just want a fair price for their property. “I want them to treat us decent,” Garcia said. “I don’t want to supplement Elon’s income any further. He’s already using my tax dollars for the next ten years. Now he wants me to give him my home for nothing? No.”

Garcia said she’s been frustrated by how excited people have gotten over Musk’s plan to explore space. “People are kind of blind because they’re so excited about [Musk] working on sending people to Mars,” she said. “Mars is 40 million miles away...he should be spending his money some other way to make this Earth a better place. We’re already in it, make it a better place to live.”

Local politicians have been no help, and Garcia said she’s heard them say that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. “Well the rights of the few protects the rights of the many,” she said.

Both Bloomer and Garcia have turned down the offer and are waiting to see what happens. “We’re in it till the end,” Bloomer said.

SpaceX did not respond to our request for comment.

Edited by Doc Reeves
  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bevo

Bevo 13601

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Helobious said:

I’m from the valley, still go back every year, and I’ve never even been to the Boca Chica area. I really didn’t know people lived out there, I thought it was all part of the preserve.

I've been there a few times on both sides of the river. Got a Jeep stuck (It is better to have less grip on your tires) that was tough to get out. Got sea fleas which suck really bad. Got food poisoning. Would highly recommend for Elon Musk to build a resort hotel with his own money.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
MAROON

MAROON 445

Posted
Posted (edited)

I've been there before and its not much of a "village" - its actually a depressing as hell looking place.  But Elon should up the offers to $200-$250k then they could find places in Corpus and Aransas Pass if they have to be close to a beach.

Edited by MAROON
Link to comment
Share on other sites
atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89799

Posted
Posted

SpaceX is getting too big for their britches if they want to force a bunch of innocent people out to make a fucking resort.

Musk needs to man the fuck up and meet their demands if he wants their property.  Pretty sure he can buy them all homes somewhere else that close to an undeveloped beach.

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
InkaUtexas

InkaUtexas 26109

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

SpaceX is getting too big for their britches if they want to force a bunch of innocent people out to make a fucking resort.

Musk needs to man the fuck up and meet their demands if he wants their property.  Pretty sure he can buy them all homes somewhere else that close to an undeveloped beach.

Puerto Rico is where I would ask him to move me. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RPM

RPM 26354

Posted
Posted

It's total bullshit, but it happens all the time and usually residents don't get 3x prop value. Simon Properties, owners of Northeast Mall in Hurst wiped out a neighborhood to build a parking lot using eminent domain.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
clapclapclap

clapclapclap 9000

Posted
Posted (edited)

This is why Kelo v. New London was such a terrible decision, it greatly expanded what could be taken by eminent domain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London

Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another private owner to further economic development. In a 5–4 decision, the Court held that the general benefits a community enjoyed from economic growth qualified private redevelopment plans as a permissible "public use" under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment...[1]

 

...Justice Stevens wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer...

 

...The principal dissent was issued on 25 June 2005 by Justice O'Connor, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Scalia and Thomas. The dissenting opinion suggested that the use of this taking power in a reverse Robin Hood fashion—take from the poor, give to the rich—would become the norm, not the exception:

Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random. The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms.[9]

O'Connor argued that the decision eliminates "any distinction between private and public use of property—and thereby effectively deletes the words 'for public use' from the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment."[10]

Thomas also issued a separate originalist dissent, in which he argued that the precedents the court's decision relied upon were flawed. He accuses the majority of replacing the Fifth Amendment's "Public Use" clause with a very different "public purpose" test:

This deferential shift in phraseology enables the Court to hold, against all common sense, that a costly urban-renewal project whose stated purpose is a vague promise of new jobs and increased tax revenue, but which is also suspiciously agreeable to the Pfizer Corporation, is for a 'public use.'[11]

Thomas additionally observed:

Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's interpretation of the Constitution. Though citizens are safe from the government in their homes, the homes themselves are not.[12]

Thomas also made use of the argument presented in the NAACP/AARP/SCLC/SJLS amicus brief on behalf of three low-income residents' groups fighting redevelopment in New Jersey, noting:

Allowing the government to take property solely for public purposes is bad enough, but extending the concept of public purpose to encompass any economically beneficial goal guarantees that these losses will fall disproportionately on poor communities. Those communities are not only systematically less likely to put their lands to the highest and best social use, but are also the least politically powerful.[13]

 

Edited by clapclapclap
  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 1
  • Rage+1 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89799

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, RPM said:

It's total bullshit, but it happens all the time and usually residents don't get 3x prop value. Simon Properties, owners of Northeast Mall in Hurst wiped out a neighborhood to build a parking lot using eminent domain.

Unlike Simon, SpaceX has a very public, very very arrogant, opinionated CEO who is always on twitter.  This is going to cost them a lot of good will down there.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
blacklab

blacklab 11951

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, clapclapclap said:

This is why Kelo v. New London was such a terrible decision, it greatly expanded what could be taken by eminent domain.

Yeah, that was one of the worst supreme court decisions ever. There's plenty of empty land in the country. No need to force anyone to sell for "economic prosperity". Find another place to buy.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
CDAK

CDAK 216

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

Of course the people performing those jobs won’t be able to afford to live anywhere near there

An out of the way beach area in Texas is not going to turn into downtown San Francisco because SpaceX moves in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DFWTexEx

DFWTexEx 278

Posted
Posted

The village is just crap, but fuck Elon Musk.

 

That being said, Boca Chica beach itself is beautiful.   Or at least it was.  As a kid, we would go out there and it was just like being on a real island.  No amenities.  No electricity.  Nothing.  You built a big fire.  As kids, we had adventures.  Jumped in the water.  Got out to eat some grilled meat and then cold watermelon.  It was perfect until it was time to come home.  And you couldn't rinse off and you came home sunburned, sticky from the salt water and everything was full of sand.   Those were the days.

  • Hook 'Em 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
CHEF DIESEL

CHEF DIESEL 126

Posted
Posted

Been there many times. I guess last time was around New Years 2020. Not many homes. You can drive right past the space ships, within 50 feet of them on the public road headed down toward the beach. If you stop even on the public right of way you are instantly confronted by local sheriff deputies moonlighting as security guards who yell over a loudspeaker to "get the fuck out of here". Screw those guys.

It's a bad ass drive from there down the beach to the mouth of the Rio Grande. It's wild, beautiful and really interesting down on the beach there. I worry access to the road and what is technically a state park will be lost there if Musk gets his way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BillyGoatHill

BillyGoatHill 4312

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, SquishMitten said:

If that's true, then Musk is really fucking this up. Adding another $100-200K to each offer is pocket change.

Worth over 93 billion? Musk is being a (dumb) fucking dick.

Fuck him, if that was my home, I'd be the dude from Better Call Saul when Mesa Verde wants his property.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...