Inside Snailbrook, the ‘utopian town’ Elon Musk is building for his employees in Texas

Keep your friends close and employees closer. That seems to be Elon Musk’s latest mantra. He has reportedly purchased thousands of acres of land in Texas, United States, and plans to build his own new town, where his employees will live and work.

The billionaire wants to create a “utopia town” outside Austin, for workers at Tesla, the automotive and clean energy giant, Space X, the space tech firm, and The Boring Company, the infrastructure and tunnel operating business.

Texas utopia called Snailbrook

Entities connected to the billionaire have purchased at least 35,000 acres near Austin and are working toward’s building “Snailbrook”, a reference to the mascot of Boring, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The mascot and now the town get their name from a snail called Gary, a reference to the SpongeBob cartoon character of the same name.

Musk has described his vision as a “sort of Texas utopia along the Colorado River”. Owning the town will allow him to set some regulations in his municipality and expedite plans, the report says.

Tech companies are known for plush campuses that boast state-of-the-art amenities. It’s all part of the incentive to lure workers and egg them on to work long hours. It looks like Musk wants to take things a notch up with Snailbrook.

Cheaper homes for employees

Musk and his top executives want to offer new homes to employees in and around Austin with rents that are below the market value –$800 per month for a two or three-bedroom house. The median rent in Bastrop County, where the town will come up, is about $2000 a month, according to real-estate listing company Zillow Group Inc, reports WSJ. But an employee who leaves or is fired will have to vacate the house within 30 days.

Snailbrook, which will have more than 100 homes, is adjacent to Boring and Space X facilities, which are now under construction. The site already has modular homes, a pool, an outdoor sports area and a gym, the report says. There are also plans for a Montessori school in the municipality for children to Musk’s employees. Photos uploaded to Facebook by locals show signs hanging which say, “Welcome. Snailbrook, TX, est. 2021”.

Bastrop County has not received any application to incorporate the town. According to Texas laws, this would require the area to have at least 201 residents and approval from a judge.

Incorporating the town will give Musk, who often clashes with regulators and authorities, more say in how to run things.

The making of Snailbrook

Over the past three years, entities linked to Musk, have reportedly purchased 3,500 acres in Austin, which is four times the size of New York’s Central Park. The billionaire controls around 6,000 acres some reports indicate.

Musk, his former girlfriend Grimes, Kanye West and the rapper’s architect held multiple discussions over the last year about the design of the town, sources told WSJ. They came up with broad ideas and visual mock-ups but no plans have been finalised.

Chap Ambrose, a computer programmer who lives on a hilltop overlooking the new Boring and SpaceX facilities, to WSJ that he believes “they want it to be secret. They want to do things before anyone knows really what’s happening.”

Construction activity linked to Boring and Space X has been going on in full swing since the spring of 2021. The infrastructure firm has built several warehouses and dug at least two test tunnels and SpaceX is constructing the largest building in the country in Texas.

Boring has reportedly applied to state environmental authorities to discharge 40,000 gallons of industrial wastewater into the river every day. This has caused concerns among locals.

David Barrow, who runs a farm in Bastrop, told WSJ that he is worried the new projects could threaten the water quality of the Colorado River and the aquifers that supply the region’s wells.

A public environmental hearing is set for this month.

The Texas connection

Musk came to Texas two years ago, abandoning California over “overregulation, overlitigation, and over-taxation”. Last year, Tesla opened a new manufacturing facility in Austin. Space X and Boring have a presence in Texas. Boring is also in talks with Austin about the possibility of building tunnels in the city, according to a CNN report.

Last month, while Tesla announced plans to expand in California with an engineering headquarters in Palo Alto, the firm’s corporate headquarters remain in Texas.

The state has fewer zoning laws and environmental and labour requirements and vast swaths of land which is loosely regulated. Unlike California, it has no corporate income tax or income or capital gains taxes on individuals, reports WSJ.

Companies tied to Musk’s businesses now own large land parcels in Texas. There are plans to build a private residential compound for the businessman at some distance from Snailbrook, the publication reports. For the past two years, he has been staying at a friend’s mansion in Austin.

Looks like Musk has big plans for Texas.

With inputs from agencies

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