The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission has been discussing a sale of Boca Chica State Park, the beachfront park that surrounds SpaceX’s Starbase launch site near Brownsville, according to a report published by Texas Monthly late on October 16, 2026.
What the report says
A draft agenda for the commission’s November 5 meeting, two days after the election, listed a closed-door executive session on the sale of “1,300 acres” in Cameron County. Two sources familiar with the internal discussions told Texas Monthly that SpaceX is the prospective buyer and that the property is the state park itself.
After the magazine asked about the meeting, a Parks and Wildlife spokesperson said in a brief statement that the commission “is not considering the sale of the Boca Chica property at its November meeting.” The agency did not answer follow-up questions about whether the idea has been dropped, and sources said the nine commissioners, all appointed by Governor Greg Abbott, could take it up at a later date.
Background
This isn’t the first time park land and SpaceX have come up together. In 2024 the department agreed to trade 43 acres of the park to SpaceX for 477 acres near Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, but SpaceX later pulled out of that deal. This summer the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved a separate swap giving SpaceX 715 acres of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in exchange for 683 acres of private land farther up the coast. Texas Monthly also notes that SpaceX has asked the FAA to raise the number of launches allowed per year at its South Texas site from 25 to 456.
The state bought the land that became the park in 1994 from The Nature Conservancy. Environmental groups quoted in the story, including Environment Texas, criticized the idea, pointing to the area’s endangered wildlife and its value as public land.
Why it matters
Starbase is where SpaceX builds and launches Starship, and room to grow around the pad is a recurring constraint. Any transfer of the surrounding park would be a major change for public beach access and habitat protection in the area, so it’s worth watching whether the item resurfaces on a future commission agenda.
Source: Texas Monthly