Solano County voters will decide during the presidential election in November if the county should have a new city, located between San Francisco and Sacramento.
California Forever—a nonprofit set up specifically for this purpose—seeks to build a new community in the county’s southeastern territory that would eventually accommodate 450,000 residents.
The land needed for the potential new city is about 17,500 acres, and voters would need to give their approval for California Forever to bypass long-established protections to prevent urbanizing the agricultural land.
The plan aims to build a “dynamic new community” with walkable neighborhoods and middle-class homes, according to a mission statement on the nonprofit’s website.
“California used to be this place of optimism,” said Mr. Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader and Solano County resident. “And if this project is done right, I do think it’s going to change the conversation. It’s going to open up a new path for the state and for the region.”
According to the ballot initiative, the city would initially include 50,000 homes and the nonprofit would promise livable wages for residents by supporting the creation of 15,000 new jobs paying 125 percent of the average weekly wage for the county. If they fail to meet their targeted numbers, no more homes will be built, according to the initiative.
Also, through a 10-year “voter guarantee,” the nonprofit promises $500 million in funding to assist would-be buyers with down payments on new homes, college and vocational training scholarships, and an investment in the new city’s parks.
Another $200 million would also be allocated toward revitalizing nearby cities, including reviving homes, offices, and mixed-use buildings in the downtowns of each.
The funding is based on the initial 50,000 residents buying in, increasing each year as the proposed new city’s population grows.
Parks, trails, and commuting by walking, biking, and a local transit system are also part of the project’s plans, in which 20 percent—about 4,000 acres—would be reserved for parks and trails.
“California Forever continues to be a senseless sprawl development in a remote, undeveloped part of Solano County. These types of projects divert much needed public and private resources away from cities and residents, leaving existing infrastructure to degrade and residents to suffer,” the Solano Together Coalition—a group of residents and leaders opposed to the new city—announced in a January statement.
They also allege Flannery Associates—a group of Silicon Valley investors behind the new city—have convinced certain special interest groups in the county to back their plans by trying to “sprinkle financial benefits” to them to distract from negative effects the new city could have on surrounding water needs, county resources, traffic, and taxpayers in existing cities.
“Flannery Associates’ plans to take surface water from the Sacramento River and/or pump groundwater from the Solano subbasin to support a whole new city would further stress critical water resources in Solano County,” said Osha Meserve, a lawyer who specializes in water and environmental impacts, in the statement.
One former Solano County Board supervisor and member of the Orderly Growth Committee—a political action committee that aims to restrict urban growth to seven cities in the county—said the community would, in reality, exacerbate traffic and create more climate issues.
“California Forever has no real plans for public transportation or transit. This development is going to clog our streets, highways, and bridges. It will make our climate worse by paving over farmlands—all while making Solano residents pay the cost,” former Supervisor Duanne Kromm said.
The Solano County Farm Bureau, a nonprofit that represents farmers in Solano County, accused Flannery—which has invested more than $800 million for 54,000 acres since 2018, according to media reports—of looking to make a quick buck by buying up the cheap land and turning it into housing.
“Buying up farmland at low prices and rezoning for housing development has been a quick way to make a buck for decades in California,” executives for the bureau said in the statement. “Developing highly productive ranch lands into urban uses cannot be undone. We cannot continue to allow developers to put food security, long-term sustainability, and livelihoods on the line in exchange for short-term profits.”
