Sensing that public opinion was not going their way last year, and facing legal fights on several fronts, a billionaire-backed effort to build a new utopian city from farmland in eastern Solano County may head down a new path.
As Politico reported this week, California Forever — the group backed by hundreds of millions in funding to date from Silicon Valley billionaires including Marc Andreessen, Michael Moritz, and Laurene Powell Jobs — has sidled up to the smallest city in Solano County, Suisun City, with hopes that the city will annex some of their land.
The move, which comes six months after they withdrew a ballot measure for their initial plan, would enable the group to launch their ambitious development plan within the envelope of an existing municipality, and thereby sidestep the legal and political hurdles that come with the county's decades-old Orderly Growth Initiative. Under that initiative, which was meant to protect farmland and avoid suburban sprawl, future development in the county was limited primarily to the existing cities there as of the early 1980s.
At 4.2 square miles, Suisun City, just south of the larger Fairfield, is a quiet bedroom community, but it abuts a portion of the 60,000 acres (93 square miles) acquired in the last several years by California Forever, with the hopes of creating a city from whole cloth that would eventually have around 400,000 residents.
The Suisun City Council and its city manager may be seeing dollar signs after talking with California Forever representative Jan Sramek, and the council voted last week to approve a process to explore annexation of new land to expand the city's footprint.
"At only four square miles, we are Solano County’s smallest city," said City Manager Bret Prebula in a release. “Now is the time to consider what more we can do to creatively grow our community and deliver more economic opportunity."
Per Politico, the council's vote is just to direct the city manager to engage with "regional partners" to explore growing the city as a way to resolve fiscal "challenges." California Forever is not mentioned in the ordinance that was passed.
Suisun City Mayor Pro Tem Princess Washington, a vocal critic of California Forever's previous plans, calls the move "diabolical."
"The project would stop being California Forever and it would start being the city of Suisun. That’s what was a total mind trip," Washington tells Politico.
"The city manager’s verbiage is exactly like California Forever, everything he says sounds like all their stuff," says Michelle Trippi, of the online opposition group California ForNever, speaking to Politico. "It’s like this has all been systematically set up."
Moving away from a county-wide land-use process would mean that the Suisun City would only need to seek approval for its annexation plans from the Solano County Local Agency Formation Commission. And no longer would California Forever be at the will of county voters and politicians.
Approvals for the ultimate development would then just go through normal city-permitting channels.
It seems like this would represent a significant loss of control for the billionaire group — and do they really want their grand vision reduced to just being an expansion of Suisun City? And will the county not see through the plot, with California Forever having amassed enough land to build more than 20 Suisun Cities.
"California Forever sees a city that is strapped for cash and they see a foothold as a way into the county," said Nate Huntington of the Greenbelt Alliance, a group that has opposed California Forever's plans, speaking to the city council at last week's meeting, per the Chronicle. "I would urge you to be wary of who you are working with and thinking that developing outside the city limits will solve the budgetary crisis."
Knowing the city's financial situation, Suisun City Mayor Alma Hernandez tells the Chronicle that she is only doing the responsible thing in exploring this option. As the Chronicle notes, nearby Benicia, which has about 2,000 fewer residents than Suisun City, takes in more than twice as much revenue, and Suisun City can only staff its police and fire departments to 80% as a result of its situation.
"Do you know how awkward it is to have to go and beg your community and say, 'I’m going to raise your taxes and will you support me anyway?' It’s awful,” Hernandez tells the paper. “I am very much aware of the cost of gas, and the groceries. And the light bill. And the water bill."
Last week's meeting was reportedly heated, with many opponents of California Forever showing up. This seems to be only the beginning of more drama to come.
