No surprise....

In shock move, California Forever pulls measure to build Bay Area city

By Katie Dowd

A group of tech billionaires and millionaires has pulled its ballot measure that aimed to build a utopian city in Solano County. Instead, the group will go back to the drawing board the old-fashioned way by submitting an application to the county.

The surprise announcement was made Monday by California Forever, a group of investors planning a city of 400,000 people in an agricultural part of the Bay Area near Rio Vista. It recently received the requisite number of signatures to put its East Solano Plan on the November ballot; that measure, if passed, would have removed some zoning restrictions that prevent this type of development in the area. 

California Forever will instead "submit an application for a General Plan & Zoning Amendment and proceed with the normal County process which includes preparation of a full Environmental Impact Report and the negotiation and execution of Development Agreement,” Solano County Board of Supervisors Chair Mitch Mashburn said in a statement Monday.

The news was celebrated by many in Solano County, where skepticism about the project ran deep. The group’s secretive purchases of huge tracts of land first brought about national security fears, even from local politicians, who had no idea who was behind the project. When the plan to build a futuristic city was announced, California Forever faced widespread pushback, ranging from concerns about billionaire backers like Reid Hoffman and Laurene Powell Jobs to questions about the impacts on traffic, water usage and proximity to Travis Air Force Base.

“The people have spoken and California Forever has been forced to withdraw their hastily drawn, poorly designed initiative, given a surefire loss in November,” Solano Forever, a group that formed in opposition to the project, said in a statement.

Although California Forever has pulled the ballot measure, it is still moving forward with the project; after all, it’s the largest single landowner in Solano County. California Forever CEO Jan Sramek said in a statement that the group will do an environmental impact report and development agreement over the next two years and hopefully bring forward a new plan for approval in 2026.

“We believe that with this process, we can build a shared vision that passes with a decisive majority and creates broad consensus for the future,” Sramek said. “We’re excited about working with the Board of Supervisors, its land use subcommittee, and county staff to make this happen.”