According to The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk is working on creating a company town named Snailbrook, where employees from Tesla, Boring, and SpaceX can reside. The proposed town would be situated about 35 miles away from Austin, Texas.
Documents obtained by the publication detail plans to construct 110 residences in Bastrop County adjacent to Boring and SpaceX facilities. The report reveals that Boring staff was encouraged to apply for housing in the previous year, with rents expected to begin at approximately $800 per month for a two or three-bedroom house.
This would be below the average rental rate in the nearby town of Bastrop, which is about $2,200 per month.
Nevertheless, if employees were to reside in Snailbrook, they would become even more reliant on Musk. In addition to being paid by his enterprises, they would also be paying him rent. According to the report, if they were fired from Boring or left the company, they would have to vacate the property within 30 days.
The proposal also includes the potential for workers from Musk’s other firms to apply for Snailbrook accommodations, given that Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory is just a half-hour drive from Bastrop town.
Plans for the town entail transforming a residence into a Montessori school, which can accommodate up to 15 pupils, as well as the potential for incorporation. The latter would give Musk the ability to establish particular rules for the community, which would necessitate holding a mayoral election.
According to records, individuals connected to Musk have acquired over 3,500 acres of land in the Austin area in recent years.
WSJ reports that last year, Musk, his architectural designer, former partner Grimes, and Ye (also known as Kanye West) held discussions on multiple occasions to brainstorm ideas for the proposed town, but nothing conclusive emerged from those talks.
Meanwhile, nearby residents have expressed apprehensions about the potential environmental impact of the initiatives. The Journal highlights that Boring has applied for permission to discharge up to 140,000 gallons of industrial wastewater into the Colorado River each day.
There are also concerns about how the testing of Boring’s tunneling equipment may impact groundwater and wells.
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