The West Central Texas Council of Governments (WCTCOG) is looking at the long-term future of our region. Our goal is simple: We want to create high-paying jobs right here in the "Big Country"-- so our children don't have to move to Dallas or Austin to find a career. We are analyzing our existing assets—like Dyess AFB, our regional airports, our renewable energy, our agribusiness and education assets—to see how we can attract the aerospace, and allied tech industries, for the next 30+ years.

The entire roadmap is designed to prioritize local talent. We are building a "Career Ladder"—from entry-level manufacturing ($18–$24/hr) to advanced technical roles in mechatronics and engineering ($45–$60/hr), to highly salaried specialty engineering roles. We are creating a training pipeline that gives our current residents access to the skills needed to move up that ladder. The aerospace industry needs electricians, welders, engineers, all manner of technical skills.

We want to upskill our workforce through community-wide aerospace-related technical certification opportunities and engineering programs, and recruit companies that will come here because we have job-ready local talent.

STAR (Space Technology and Aerospace Resources) Assets are identified existing assets throughout our 19 counties that have something to contribute to a burgeoning aerospace ecosystem – an alliance assessing convergence of our green energy power, agribusiness innovation, Big Country space for robotic test beds and innovative flight testing, economic development corporations, technical schools and colleges, and many more.

We have identified public and military interest in a facility that solves two of our community’s biggest hurdles: childcare and job training. We want to put a state-of-art Child Development Center in an advanced technical training STAR facility. This means working parents can drop their children off in a high-quality, affordable care facility while they attend aerospace and technical training certification programs in the same building.

It is about removing the barriers that keep talented people out of the high-tech workforce, including spouses of military and separating AF personnel. This will keep families in the Big Country. The STAR Center HQ will also house classroom and lab space for K-12 STEM-space programs that have been developed by NASA, putting our children on a firm STEM footing for a secure career path and creating a job workforce that attracts aerospace industry.

We are aware that rapid growth can strain local housing. Our plan focuses on "Planned Growth" rather than "Uncontrolled Sprawl." We are exploring an innovative model where we partner with private developers to build workforce housing specifically tied to these new employment nodes. We want to negotiate Good Corporate Citizen Partnerships with companies that come here.

For example, in exchange for incentive packages like tax abatement for a limited time, companies contribute to the community with things like childcare, employee education benefits, and participation in affordable housing initiatives near their place of business.

The beauty of this plan is that it isn't "Space or Local Industry"—it is "Space plus Local Industry." We are focused on "Aerospace Convergence" – pooling our existing assets and resources to grow a new industry that will in turn support our existing economy. The same technology used to build a lunar base (like robotics, soil-nutrient extraction, and automated power systems) can be used to improve arid-land farming, energy efficiency and farm-to-market mobility right here in West Central Texas.

We aren't ignoring our roots; we are using high-tech schools to make our traditional industries stronger and more efficient. Dual use technologies (that help humans on both Earth & the Moon) will be the result.

The goal of this strategy is to reduce the tax burden on residents by broadening the tax base. By recruiting stable, high-value corporate partners who invest in their own infrastructure (like utilities) we keep the infrastructure costs off the municipal budget. Our strategy is to use "Public-Private Partnerships" (P3s), where the private companies themselves cover a certain amount of the cost of development, keeping our tax dollars protected. They will need us!

This is just the beginning! This study is a working draft, and we are tweaking it based on feedback from you. We will have a final report ready at the end of August 2026. Please check this website regularly for updates, town hall meeting dates, and updated info – and tell your neighbors to lon onto our website to respond!