Elon Musk bought us out to build a tiny village for his workers

In recent years, Elon Musk has been stealthily buying up a small area in Texas to build his own little village next to his Tesla, SpaceX and Boring companies, The Post can confirm.

Based in Bastrop, outside the city of Austin, Musk spent millions buying land in a quaint town in the hope that he could get around big city rules, the Wall Street Journal first reported.

It is located next to the Colorado River and its vision is to create its own utopia where its employees can live and work.

But while the locals are excited about the new opportunity that has come their way, they remain wary of what it will mean for the charming town they have called home for most of their lives.

Anna O’Neill grew up in the city riding horses with her sister Molly. Her parents, Michael and Linda Waxman, were among those who recently sold their longtime estate to Musk, which included more than 100 acres of the thousands he acquired.

Her sister still lives on a share that Musk also bought, but she is not required to leave until 2024.

O’Neill said the city was initially shocked to learn that Musk had chosen their little piece of paradise as the location for his factories and companies. But over the years, they did not realize that this would also mean giving up their own property.

“My parents were very close to all the neighbors down the street. So if one person sold out in the community, you should all do it,” O’Neill, 30, told The Post, adding that her grandfather bred greyhounds on the farm for many years.

“The land belonged to my grandparents and then my mom inherited it,” she said. “They are working to have my parents clear this property at the end of the month so they can start working on it. So nothing has been done yet. We are still trying to leave the area.”

“There’s definitely a lot of history there. He has many memories of training dogs. He built this whole farming community there,” O’Neill said of his grandfather. “So I think it’s kind of sad because we’re going through his stuff and choosing and choosing — to get out of the property.”

O’Neill admitted that when Musk’s team approached her family to buy the land, they were told it would be used for workers’ housing, not the city.

Musk called a log report that he builds a “fake” city on Friday.

While photos obtained by The Post show the land is still in the early stages of construction, it already has several modular homes, an outdoor sports arena, a swimming pool and a gym.

In Texas, a city must have a population of at least 201 to be considered an incorporated city. The Bostrop County Commissioner’s office has yet to hear from Musk about this.

Organizations associated with Musk’s companies or executives have purchased at least 3,500 acres of land in the Austin area, the magazine reported. This is four times the size of New York’s Central Park. It was rumored that he even owned over 6,500 acres of land in the Lone Star State.

“It was a shock when we found out that this was going to be a real city,” she said. “I learned about it from an Instagram post. I didn’t know it would be possible. I heard he even wants to hire a mayor.

At first, Musk fled from California to Texas to avoid insurmountable rules. He even called the Golden State a place of “over-regulation, over-litigation and over-taxation,” he said in December 2021.

Meanwhile, Texas has fewer zoning laws and less land that is freely regulated. Unlike California, there is no corporate income tax or capital gains tax.

The floor plans, filed with the Bastrop County Commissioners in January, show a vision of the village of Snailbrook, in reference to the company’s mascot, The Mask Boring.

A map obtained by The Post shows that Snailbrook will have 110 residences at Boring Boulevard, WaterJet Way, Porpoise Place and Cutterhead Crossing.

“My dad thinks it’s nice to just open a new leaf,” O’Neill said. “My parents use the proceeds to buy other properties and reinvest them. So… it was fun.”

Her parents still own a 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. The two were in the movie business and lived in Los Angeles for several years before moving to Texas to inherit a farm.

O’Neal explains that when she was younger, there was only a Walmart and a traffic light. She jokes that now they have added Chick-fil-A.

At Bastrop, SpaceX is building a 500,000-square-foot facility, and across from State Highway 1209 Boring, Musk’s infrastructure and tunneling company is building a new warehouse.

“There has been a bit of a pause as to what this will mean for our community,” O’Neill added. “Deep down we are still a small town. It was a big change. I think there’s still a bit of fear, or not fear but anticipation, to see what’s going to happen because things are changing so fast.”

“And of course he builds so fast. I mean, Tesla’s factory grew, it seems, overnight, given how massive it was.”

After all, O’Neill said the process was bittersweet.

“There’s a bit of nerve, but also some relief,” O’Neill said. “Now my parents have the money to buy another property, which is a little further from the city limits, so that they can continue to live a small farm life.”

The Post has reached out to Musk and the Bastrop County Commissioners Court for comment.

Meanwhile, the idea of ​​living in an unregulated, private town or city has become popular in recent years.

Praxis is one of the new projects funded in part by Peter Thiel. The goal is to build a city outside of the United States and free from government control.