Downward angle icon An icon in the shape of a downward angle. California Forever wants to build a walkable city about 60 miles from San Francisco. California Forever The billionaires helping to build a new utopian city on the outskirts of San Francisco are putting some of their plans on hold. California Forever said it won’t file a ballot initiative as planned this year. Instead, the company will spend the next two years preparing an environmental impact statement.
The Silicon Valley billionaires behind a controversial effort to build a new city near San Francisco will postpone further development of the utopian project for at least two years, California Forever announced Monday, just days after a county report on the East Solano plan raised new concerns about the effort.
Over the past few years, tech investors have raised more than $800 million to buy more than 50,000 acres of mostly farmland in the Bay Area, hoping to build walkable urban communities that will provide badly needed housing in the densely populated state.
But the project has sparked tensions between its billionaire backers and Solano County stakeholders, who clashed over California Forever’s anonymous approach to purchasing the land and the investor’s desire to move quickly through the plan. Throughout the process, California Forever CEO Jan Sramek has argued the additional housing is urgently needed and has called for an expedited approval process.
A report released by California Forever earlier this month said the project would pump billions of dollars of economic activity back into the county and create tens of thousands of jobs, but a report ordered by the Solano County Board of Supervisors last month estimated that making the utopia a reality would cost the county billions of dollars and hurt agricultural production in rural areas. The report also said the development could threaten local water supplies and “may not be financially feasible.”
California Forever disputed some of the data used in the county’s report, Sramek told Business Insider, and said he hopes the restructured timeline released Monday will bridge the gap between the company and the county and allow the two sides to work more cohesively.
California Forever had planned to present a ballot proposal to Solano County voters this November, but that plan has been scrapped, according to a joint statement from Sramek and Solano County Supervisor Mitch Mashburn.
Instead, California Forever will spend the next two years preparing an environmental impact statement for the development and continuing to work toward reaching a development agreement with the county.
Mashburn said he thought the decision reflected Sramek’s recognition that the timing of the project was “unrealistic.”
“Postponing the vote gives everyone a chance to pause and work together, which is what we need — friends in our county working together, not fighting each other on both sides,” Mashburn wrote.
Sramek, meanwhile, offered a slightly different take on the delay, saying the company is “reorganizing” its procedures to prioritize environmental impact reports over zoning approvals, but stressed that the change will not affect the project’s “ambitious timeline.”
Sramek told Business Insider that despite the change in timing, California Forever is “pretty excited” about its new plans.
“It’s something we didn’t expect initially, but it’s just emerged organically over the last few weeks,” Sramek said.
The utopia’s planners cited strong community support for the city. In a statement Monday, California Forever pointed to an Impact Research poll that found a majority of Solano voters support the development but believe the project is being moved too quickly.
The plan still needs voter approval before it can get final approval, and Sramek said in a statement that California Forever plans to submit its full plan for approval in 2026.
Business Insider has reached out to Solano County for additional comment.
UPDATE — July 22, 2024: This story has been updated to add comment from California Forever CEO Jan Sramek.
