Ballot measure to build billionaire-funded city in California withdrawn

The company behind the highly criticized “California Forever” project, a plan backed by Silicon Valley billionaires to build a green city for up to 400,000 people on California farmland, withdrew the ballot measure for the election in November, according to a letter released Monday.

The decision followed a discussion between Mitch Mashburn, chair of the board of supervisors in Solano county, and Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader and chief executive of California Forever.

The company will instead seek approval through the county’s standard processes and proceed through the usual county process for negotiating and executing a development agreement.

“I think it signals Jan Sramek’s understanding that while the need for more affordable housing and good paying jobs has merit, the timing has been unrealistic,” said Mashburn.

Solano county supervisors were scheduled to vote on whether to approve California Forever’s plan to rezone 17,500 acres of farmland near Fairfield for the city or let voters decide in November.

The move to withdraw the measure comes a week after a report by Solano county stated that the proposed city would likely cost the county billions of dollars, create substantial financial deficits, reduce agricultural production, harm climate resilience and potentially threaten local water supplies.

Sramek said California Forever would work with the county on the environmental report and development agreement over the next two years, aiming for approval from county supervisors in 2026.

“We take our time to make informed decisions that are best for the current generation and future generations,” said Mashburn. “We want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to be heard and get all the information they need before voting on a General Plan change of this size.”

California Forever, which spent more than $800m buying in excess of 60,000 acres of mostly agricultural land, had released its own study claiming the new city would generate billions in economic activity and tens of thousands of jobs. Their marketing materials depicted a Mediterranean-style community with walkable neighborhoods and a mix of businesses.

The proposal, funded by billionaire venture capitalists Marc Andreessen, Michael Moritz, Reid Hoffman, a LinkedIn co-founder, and businesswoman Laurene Powell Jobs, has faced controversy since Flannery Associates, its real estate arm, sued holdout landowners for $510m, accusing them of conspiring to inflate prices.

Controversy over the secretive approach also had residents skeptical from the beginning. Silicon Valley elites had been quietly buying northern California farmland to develop a 27-square-mile plot between Travis Air Force Base and Rio Vista, currently zoned for agriculture.

“We believe that Solano county has the opportunity to forge a new path towards the California Dream for this generation and generations to come,” said Sramek. “We also believe that we must move forward with urgency – because delays are not just a statistic.”

The county’s report estimated that infrastructure such as roads, schools and parks for the project would cost taxpayers $6.4bn for the first phase and nearly $50bn to complete the new city.

On Monday, Mashburn said that a vote without this type of environmental report “politicized the project and forced the community to take sides.”

A poll conducted by Impact Research in July said 65% of Solano county voters “support bringing more good paying jobs, affordable homes, and clean energy to East Solano”.

Sramek emphasized the importance of regaining California’s historic promise of optimism and opportunity, which he says has waned in recent decades due to stagnation in development. More than half of respondents also agreed that the development project was moving too fast and preferred an environmental report.