Parks and Wildlife Asks Attorney General to Keep Draft Boca Chica Agenda Secret as SpaceX Land Questions Grow
A draft commission agenda that listed a closed-door discussion of land near SpaceX's Starbase was pulled from the November meeting. Now the department wants the draft itself withheld — and says no sale is being considered.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department asked the Texas Attorney General's office on Friday, Oct. 30 to block the release of a draft commission agenda that listed a closed-door discussion of selling land near SpaceX's operations in Cameron County, The Texas Tribune reported Saturday. Department attorney Eric Trimble argued the draft is exempt from disclosure under the open-records law's protection for deliberative process.
The draft exists because the Tribune asked for it — the newsroom filed a public-records request on Oct. 19 — and whatever it said, the final agenda for the commission's November meeting omits any Cameron County land item entirely.
Texas Monthly reported that the commission had been expected to discuss selling 1,300 acres, purportedly to SpaceX, in executive session at its Nov. 5 meeting, citing two sources, and that the item was pulled after reporters began asking about it. Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Stephanie Garcia said the commission "is not considering the sale of the Boca Chica property at its November meeting," and Gov. Greg Abbott said on Oct. 19 that he knew few details and that no sale vote was coming "anytime soon."
The land at the center of it is Boca Chica State Park: more than 1,055 acres of dunes, tidal flats, marshes and coastal grassland near Brownsville that the state acquired in 1994, sitting directly beside SpaceX's Starbase launch site.
It would not be the first deal struck at that fence line. In 2024 the commission approved a land swap with SpaceX — 43 acres for 477 — that the company later withdrew. What the commission intended to discuss this time, behind closed doors, is the part the department is now asking the attorney general to keep out of public view; the attorney general's office decides open-records disputes, and its ruling on the draft is still to come.
