As early as August 2020, SpaceX indicated it was looking to build a resort in South Texas with the intent to turn “Boca Chica into a ’21st century Spaceport'”.
In March 2021, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk more formally announced plans to incorporate a new city in the area of Boca Chica to be called Starbase, Texas. Starbase would include the existing Boca Chica Village, the SpaceX test site and launch site, and more of the surrounding Boca Chica area.
Starbase is expected to include the land in Boca Chica Village proper—where both the legacy house community and the SpaceX build site are located—as well as the land where the SpaceX test site and launch site is located, and more since Starbase is to be a municipality “much larger than Boca Chica.”
By April 2021, SpaceX was referring to the area as “Starbase” on their test flight webcasts, and Musk was openly encouraging people to move to “Starbase,” and projected that the population could grow by several thousand people in the next several years.