Billionaire backers of building a new city northeast of San Francisco Bay cleared their first major hurdle Tuesday when Solano County’s voter registrar certified that the group has enough signatures to put its proposal before local voters in November.
The group backing the measure, called California Forever, now must persuade voters to back the bold idea to build a walkable and environmentally friendly community with thousands of homes, plus an athletic center, parks, bike lanes, open space and a massive solar farm on what is currently pastureland.
Led by former Goldman Sachs trader and entrepreneur Jan Sramek, the venture is backed by a number of tech heavyweights, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, and Patrick and John Collison, founders of payment processing company Stripe.
In an interview Tuesday, Shramek said the question before Solano County voters is “nothing less than a referendum on what we want the future of California to be.”
He said the state was once a great place “where all these incredible things happened, bridges, water infrastructure, great public works, and now it’s an oasis for the wealthy, or for people who bought homes at a cheap price and now they live here.”
He said that amid a severe shortage of affordable housing, his proposed new city offers “a way out of this defeatist build-nothing-argue-everything mode.”
But the proposal faces opposition from some local leaders as well as environmental groups concerned about habitat loss. latest polling They found that 70% of those surveyed were skeptical.
There are “a lot of reasons” to oppose the project, said former Solano County Supervisor Duane Crome, who has pushed for limits on growth in the county and led a group that funded the survey. Among the reasons, he said, is the county’s longstanding commitment to restricting growth to existing towns, as well as what he said is a lack of transparency by project supporters.
Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) even said that op-ed Writing against the project in the local newspaper: “I strongly support efforts to increase the number of good-paying jobs, implement clean energy, and provide opportunities for our region. But these efforts require solid public policy that works with our community, not grandiose promises that may never be fulfilled.”
Some of the opposition stems from California Forever’s difficult start in the local political scene: The effort, which was launched under a cloak of secrecy, was doomed to failure. Caught in controversies Last year, there was unfounded speculation that the land buyers were foreign agents intent on spying.
That’s because several years before backers revealed his plans, he used an LLC called Flannery Associates to buy land from farmers across a large swath of the county, stretching from Rio Vista in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta westward toward Travis Air Force Base, without telling anyone. News of a mysterious land sale so close to a key military installation led some, including government officials, to speculate that it might be part of an effort by foreign spies to obtain military secrets.
last year it was found out instead It’s a bold plan that would build a new city from the ground up and redefine the way housing is built in California.
In January, Shramek unveiled a blueprint for the new community and announced that his group would launch a signature-gathering drive to present a measure to amend zoning regulations to county voters. His group spent $2 million on those efforts from January through March. The group has also begun releasing a list of benefits that voters can expect from the new community.
These include: a pledge to create at least 15,000 jobs; $500 million to help pay down housing, scholarships and other benefits for residents; $200 million to revitalize the urban core of Solano County communities such as Rio Vista, Benicia and Dixon; and a commitment to preserve open space, create walkable neighborhoods and improve traffic flow on neighborhood streets.
On May 12, Californians Forever announced it was in talks with 12 employers interested in expanding in the county. On May 21, the group said it had awarded $500,000 in grants to local organizations. And on June 4, the group pledged to build a regional youth sports complex so kids wouldn’t have to travel as often to San Francisco or Sacramento for club sports.
Shramek has moved to the Solano County town of Fairfield with his family and their golden retriever. He said Tuesday that he feels welcome in his new community and loves the warmth — even on a day when temperatures topped 100 degrees.
He said he is confident voters can be persuaded that his project can help solve the state’s housing crisis and improve the county’s economic situation. He said people have “been disappointed with developers before.” But he said his group is “really serious” about fulfilling its promises.
Some elected officials say they are listening.
Mayor Ron Kott of Rio Vista, a town of about 10,000 that abuts the property being developed by California Forever, said he sees “a lot of benefits” in it. One of them, he said, is that it could increase retail business in his town and possibly bring a much-needed health care clinic.
“I need more business. I need more sales tax revenue. I need essential services,” he said.
