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California Forever, the group proposing to build a new city on nearly 80 square miles in California’s Solano County, revealed new details about its plans during a press conference Wednesday.
The group filed a ballot initiative with the Solano County Registrar of Voters and posted two blogs on its expectations for the roughly $800M worth of land amassed by a group of secretive investors.
The proposed East Solano Homes, Jobs, and Clean Energy Initiative lays out several goals for the land, including building a new community for an estimated 50,000 residents on 18,600 acres. The team said the development would support the creation of at least 15,000 jobs paying 125% of the average wage in Solano County, and California Forever intends to create a $500M community benefit fund and a $200M investment in the downtowns of neighboring cities.
These plans, even in their more general form, have elicited scrutiny and even scorn from some in the area, as well as a probing call from the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment. The committee reached out to the group in 2022 about the origin of its financing, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.
About 3% of the money behind California Forever comes from foreign investors, according to its website. However, the proximity of the land to Travis Air Force Base has raised eyebrows among local politicians.
“This is a pipe dream,” U.S. Rep. John Garamendi told KCRA in Sacramento.
The television station reported that Garamendi was angry about the secrecy with which the investors collected their parcels so close to a military base.
California Forever addressed these concerns in one of 10 guarantees the organization makes in the proposal. The initiative would create the Travis Security Zone, doubling the buffer between the base and the development to nearly 15,000 acres via a land swap proposed in November.
Wednesday’s release also includes a preliminary timeline. The group plans to begin collecting signatures in February to place its initiative on the November ballot. Public meetings will also continue in February and March. If all goes to plan, an environmental impact report and development agreement could be executed as early as 2025 or 2026.
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