California's billionaire utopia faces a major setback

Silicon Valley’s billionaire-backed plan to turn 60,000 acres into a utopian “city of yesterday” is officially delayed by at least two years. California Forever confirmed on July 22 that its “East Solano Plan” rezoning proposal will not appear on the region’s November election ballot. Instead, the $900 million project will first receive a full, independent environmental impact review while preparing a development agreement with local county supervisors.

Speaking with The New York Times this week, California Democratic state senator John Garamendi said, “The California Forever pipe dream is in a permanent deep freeze.”

First unveiled in August 2023 after years of stealth land purchases just outside San Francisco, organizers bill the 60,000 acre East Solano Plan as a multistep campaign to build “one of the most walkable and sustainable [towns] in the United States.” Concept art on California Forever’s website depicts idyllic pedestrian squares and solar farms, with lofty promises to bring hundreds of thousands of jobs to the area along with “novel methods of design, construction, and governance,” according to a previous profile. Overseen by former Goldman Sachs trader Jan Sramek, California Forever received financial backing from wealthy venture capitalists including LinkedIn’s co-founder Reid Hoffman and Lauren Powell Jobs, billionaire philanthropist and widow of Steve Jobs.

[ California’s billionaire utopia may not be as eco-friendly as advertised.]

But from the start, locals, environmental advocates, and politicians pushed back against the East Solano Plan. By November 2023, news broke that California Forever’s parent company previously sued a group of locals for $510 billion, citing antitrust violations after the defendants refused to sell their land (the locals later agreed to sell for $18,000 per acre). Meanwhile, state representatives voiced security concerns about the proposed city’s proximity to the nearby Travis Air Force Base.

Last month, the accredited Solano Land Trust announced its opposition to the plan, citing what it believed would be a “detrimental impact” to the region’s “water resources, air quality, traffic, farmland, and natural environment.” The land trust also alleged California Forever backers misled the public by describing much of the area as “non-prime farmland” with “low quality soils.” In reality, the Solano Land Trust explained that the “sensitive habitat… home to rare and endangered plants and animals” includes some of the state’s most water-efficient farmland.

In this week’s announcement, Sramek claims a recent poll conducted by California Forever indicated 65 percent of East Solano residents “support development of good paying jobs, more affordable homes, and clean energy,” while noting that “most voters are also asking for a full environmental impact report to be completed first.”

“The idea of building a new community and economic opportunity in eastern Solano seemed impossible on the surface,” Sramek wrote to Popular Science last year. “But after spending a lot of time learning about the community, which I now call home, I became convinced that with thoughtful design, the right long-term patient investors, and strong partnerships… we can create a new community.”