The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department proposal that became public earlier this month aims to give the commercial space company 43 acres of Boca Chica State Park in exchange for 477 acres of land apparently owned by SpaceX near the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, about 10 miles to the northwest.
Parks and wildlife commissioners were set to vote on the plan Thursday morning, but the item was withdrawn from the agenda after they were hit with criticism from concerned residents, county officials and environmental groups including the Sierra Club and SaveRGV. Many called on the state to table the proposal to allow more time for public disclosure and discussion.
The Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter said the parks and wildlife department received more than 1,000 comments in opposition to the proposal and about 265 in support.
Mary Angela Branch, board member of the nonprofit SaveRGV, was among those making their concerns public this week.
"You're chipping away at more of that very unique ecosystem," she said. "The whole thing stinks."
Beyond the coastal ecosystem where SpaceX is building and launching its Starship mega-rocket, Branch said she was concerned about the lack of public accountability exhibited by parks and wildlife.
"The public has not been told anything," she said. "What's the intended use? Is it going to be preserved in perpetuity as natural land?"
She also noted there have been no environmental assessments of the proposal for the two vastly different types of land — wetlands versus thorn scrub.
"It's not 'like for like' land," she said.
State's silence
The state hasn't said why it wants the property it would get in the swap but issued a statement saying the deal would "expand public access and recreation in the region and allow ... (the parks department) to protect and manage the property's diverse habitats."
Other questions remain, as well. They include who would own mineral rights, whether money will be exchanged and how the deal would impact access to Boca Chica and Brazos Island state parks.
Also unclear is who really owns the 477 acres near Laguna Atascosa. Cameron County Appraisal District records show the parcels belong to Bahia Grande Holdings. Some have suggested it's a SpaceX-affiliated entity but that was unclear Wednesday. Elon Musk's companies frequently gobble up property under shell corporations with names such as Dogleg Park LLC.
The Sierra Club also raised procedural concerns and asked Parks and Wildlife to delay the scheduled vote.
In a letter to Jeffery Hildebrand, Texas Parks and Wildlife commission chair, and David Yoskowitz, executive director of the department, the group said it's "concerned not only about the potential impacts of the land swap, and the loss of important parkland in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, but also about the rushed process of this proposed deal."
The group said the agency may have broken its own rules requiring a 30-day public notice period for such decisions. The Parks and Wildlife department publicly announced the plan on Jan. 6, which was 20 days before the scheduled vote.
"Rushing decisions on such an important matter would set a bad precedent for future land acquisitions and is not in keeping with public participation and transparency in government," the Sierra Club said in its letter. "Please take more time to receive input, to provide the community with adequate time to respond, to consider further studies of the two parcels in question, and to carefully consider whether losing important existing state lands is in the interest of the state or local community practices."
County concerns
The short notice and apparent lack of communication also concerned Cameron County Commissioner David Garza. He said the county had been making moves to buy the swath of land that would be given to the state before the parks and wildlife proposal was made public.
"We don't need a corporation to come in and buy a property that is in the works of already being bought." Garza told ValleyCentral.com. The county, he said, is seeking federal grant dollars from the General Land Office to buy the land. It filed an application for the funds on Jan. 9.
"Now we're in competition with a large private entity in our county that could do other things with their philanthropic efforts and their mitigation efforts," Garza told the local news outlet.
Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. was among those who voiced official opposition to the plan. Neither he nor Garza responded to requests Wednesday for further comment.
But others were making their opposition known ahead of the scheduled vote.
In written comments to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Kenneth Teague, a senior certified ecologist, called on the state to assess the cumulative impacts of the proposal on the Boca Chica ecosystem and to consider SpaceX's history there.
"Clearly incremental SpaceX actions are having a major cumulative impact on the Boca Chica ecosystem, and this represents a contribution to those cumulative impacts," he wrote, adding that the state should provide the assessment for public review and comment.
Teague also said that "SpaceX has consistently withheld their true intentions — choosing not to disclose, and rather periodically requesting authorization to degrade the Boca Chica ecosystem, incrementally, thus avoiding proper and honest environmental impact assessment."
Branch, of SaveRGV, echoed such concerns, saying the Parks and Wildlife plan is attempting to skirt scrutiny.
She said it's the latest example of state and local governments bending to the desires of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and his businesses.
"This didn't come about overnight, it came to the public overnight," she said.
Musk "wants all of Boca Chica, and he played his cards right," Branch said. "It's like that Monopoly game, you buy up everything and then when people can't afford that rent, or whatever, and you want something else, you trade... that's exactly what he did."
Neither SpaceX nor the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department responded to requests for comment.
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