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A group of tech billionaires behind the so-called California Forever project to develop a new city in Solano County, California, is changing strategies after a report questioned the project’s financial feasibility.
California Forever will no longer pursue a ballot initiative to amend the county plan and rezone 17,000 acres for development and will instead seek approval through typical county processes, The Mercury News reported.
Solano County issued a report July 18 that said infrastructure for the project, including schools, parks and related expenses, would cost an estimated $6.4B for the development’s first phase. To complete the new city, the bill came to an estimated $50B, according to The Mercury News.
Costs for other services, like fire protection, would outpace revenues, and the loss of farmland would cut agricultural production by $6.7M annually, the report said. The availability of water, an increasingly crucial component of any development in the West, was an open question, according to the report.
California Forever, backed by big Silicon Valley names like Marc Andreessen and Laurene Powell Jobs, spent more than $800M on 60,000 acres of mostly agricultural land in Solano County for the establishment of the new city. The proposal was met with skepticism by many locals, while others expressed excitement about the boost to the local tax base and thousands of new jobs and housing units.
The land’s proximity to Travis Air Force Base also raised eyebrows at a federal level because roughly 3% of the dollars to purchase the land came from foreign investors. And some in Solano County resisted selling their land, touching off a legal dispute in which California Forever’s real estate operation, Flannery Associates, sued landowners for $510M.
In a statement posted to the project’s website, California Forever CEO and co-founder Jan Sramek said his organization was trying to move faster than usual for large-scale developments by getting zoning approvals before conducting an environmental impact report. But in light of the county’s report, the group will now reverse its plans.
California Forever will work on an environmental impact report and development agreement over the next two years, then bring the entire proposal for approval in 2026, according to Sramek’s statement.
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