Hatch village trustees voted this week to annex 308 acres aimed at developing as a potential home for a spaceport visitor center according to the Las Cruces Sun News.

The move comes after the New Mexico Spaceport Authority announced plans to build welcome centers in Hatch and in Truth or Consequences.  The centers will allow tourists and other visitors to be shuttled to the spaceport, still under construction in southern Sierra County.

Spaceport Authority officials have said visitors will not be allowed to drive their own cars to the Spaceport America site.

But the annexation "goes way beyond that," said Hatch Mayor Judd Nordyke, referring to the possibility of locating a welcome center within the newly annexed area around the nearest Interstate 25 exit.

"We're annexing it so we can get some area available for development in the village."

Nordyke and trustee Lloyd Burns noted the bulk of the town's business district is along two roads, already largely developed, and visitors must drive about half a mile west from the highway to reach restaurants, shops and convenience stores.

To make it easier for visitors to shop in the town that touts itself as the "chile capital of the world," the annexation moves Hatch's limits to the highway. "We're kind of landlocked, and we need to push that way," Burns said following a board of trustees' meeting Tuesday evening. "It's a positive move for the future."