VERMILION PARISH, La.-At a bait shop here, owner Seth Chapman has been keeping an informal poll about the newcomers who will soon be coming to-and launching rockets from-the rural area west of New Orleans.

"Space X," a white sheet of paper says in big letters, with two columns below to log visitors' feelings via star and smiley-face stickers. By last week, when Chapman stopped counting, "yes" votes topped 100, beating 72 opposed and a smattering of stickers on the center line for undecided.

The outcome reflects divisions over SpaceX's plans to build a rocket complex on a coastal stretch roughly 40 minutes away that is otherwise known for duck hunting and fishing. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry laid out details at an event Tuesday in the parish seat of Abbeville.

He said SpaceX was committing to spend $100 billion in capital investment for the project, and the company said it expects to create at least 3,000 permanent jobs. Chief Executive Elon Musk, in a prerecorded video, said SpaceX will call the new site "Starbase, Louisiana."

Later, Musk said in a social-media post the development would host more than a dozen launch sites, allowing the company to eventually conduct over 30 flights of its Starship rocket a day-an extraordinary rate that regulators will need to approve. They are building the site in a coastal area near land that is called Pecan Island.

Ahead of the announcement, the plan was already sparking pushback from some residents, especially those closest to the launch site, who fear harm to local wildlife and being pushed from land some families have lived on for generations. Other residents in the broader region, where the economy has been hurt by lost oil business, are hoping for an economic boost.

Chapman, 33 years old, said he is a big believer in Musk, though he believes rocket launches may scare off the ducks he avidly hunts, at least temporarily. His bait shop outside Abbeville, called Perry Outfitters, sports a big "Welcome Space X" sign out front.

"No matter what he wants to do, it's going to benefit the local economy," Chapman said.

SpaceX has conducted more than three years of high-profile tests with its Starship rocket, and aims to start using it soon for operational flights. The Louisiana site is far larger than the company's land holdings for its Starbase facility outside of Brownsville, Texas.

"They are offering us a permanent future and lasting prosperity," Landry said Tuesday.

The development is expected to roll out over the coming years, with SpaceX saying that it hopes to fly Starship from the property for the first time in 2029. The site will support SpaceX's goal to fly Starship thousands of times a year, a company executive said in the prerecorded video during Tuesday's event.

"This will be a project like no other," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said. The site will include power generation, shipping infrastructure, vehicle facilities and possibly an airport, she said.

The company will partner with government agencies on shoreline protection and wildlife conservation, according to Shotwell. Birds may fly away during launches but they will return, she said.

The project has been discussed around Louisiana for months, though firmer details came Tuesday. Some locals said the first big sign came when they woke several weeks ago to white "X"s painted on the road.

"We were afraid it was aliens," joked Beatrice Bagwell, 74, who lives on a 240-acre Pecan Island compound that has been in the family for four generations. She started crying over a dinner of chicken and dumplings she made for her family while talking about the prospect of leaving their longtime home.

Pecan Island is an unincorporated, coastal area of Vermilion Parish with between 100 and 200 permanent residents, according to Michael S. Martin, professor of history at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The population expands from November through January during duck hunting season, when visitors come out to seasonal camps. The parish has slightly lower incomes and higher poverty than the state at large.

Starship, standing more than 400 feet tall on launchpads, generates a powerful roar as it lifts off and sonic booms during re-entries of its reusable boosters. For safety reasons, SpaceX needs to keep people far from the rocket during operations.

Some of the most intense opposition is in Pecan Island itself. Chapman has a second bait shop closer to the launch site where he hasn't put up a pro-SpaceX sign. Landry said people there won't be asked to leave their land, but some locals, before the announcement, feared for their homes.

Wayne Miller, 66, who said he voted for Landry, is upset with the governor for "rolling out the red carpet" for SpaceX and for not telling locals more in advance. At his Pecan Island home, on raised stilts on 7 acres of land, Miller produced a printed-out list of pro-aerospace bills that Landry recently signed.

One bill limits liability for rocket launchers that own at least 20,000 contiguous acres related to noise, exhaust and other disturbances. Another makes certain information tied to aerospace activities exempt from open records requests.

A retired commercial shrimper and oil field worker whose wife drives a school bus, Miller fears having to leave his lifetime home. He said he wakes up to the sounds of black-bellied whistling ducks every morning. He's also accustomed to the oinks from pigs he raises for his grandchildren and other kids to show at 4-H.

"If they run us out, where do we go?" Miller said. "What do we do?"

Brooke Broussard-Bagwell's niece and a special-education teacher in Abbeville-has been encouraging locals to speak out against the project.

"This is not just a place of hunting and fishing, it's not a wasteland, it's not a forgotten place," she said, while noting that many locals are survivors who have rebuilt after devastating hurricanes. "The people who live here earned the right to live here."

In the parish seat-where the downtown is lined with well-preserved, historic buildings-Landry said the project will help keep Louisianians in Louisiana and stem the population loss that has plagued the state.

Bobbie Jo Scully, 54, who owns a local coffee shop, drives a bus, teaches dance and styles hair to make ends meet, counts herself among the project's supporters. Two of her three kids have already moved to Texas to find better-paying work, but Scully said a daughter in Houston might return if SpaceX helps the area add more jobs.

"Louisiana is in a rut," she said. "We need something different."