California Forever, the quixotic, billionaire-backed project to build a new city in the Bay Area, is chugging along. Despite the fact that locals seem to hate it, the Silicon Valley dreamers behind the project remain undeterred. The team planning the city released more details about their proposed development this week, including a map of what the hypothetical future city might eventually look like.
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Project developers updated their website Wednesday to include new information about the proposed metropolis. The updates include a number of big promises to the local community of Solano County, where California Forever has staked its claim. Most notably, the project guaranteed 15,000 new jobs to locals, the likes of which will pay “at least 125%” of the county’s average weekly wage. They also promise to supply $400 million in what they call “community benefits funding” to help current county residents “buy homes in the new community.” The website lists “working families, teachers, nurses, police and firefighters, and construction workers” as potential beneficiaries of this funding.
At the same time, the project backers claim they’ll invest as much as $200 million in a number of neighboring towns and cities, to assist those communities with development. Other promises, like financial commitments to support local parks, trails, and agricultural spaces, have also been included in the proposal.
In short: After getting off on the wrong foot with locals, California Forever appears to be putting its money where its mouth is, in an attempt to buy some loyalty from the surrounding community. The website vaunts an idealistic vision of its future city, painting an idyllic scene of gentrified urban harmony:
…[our] initiative proposes to build a dynamic new community, with middle-class homes in safe, walkable neighborhoods. The plan also includes a commitment to bring good-paying jobs in advanced manufacturing, renewable energy, construction, and other industries, as well as large investments in education, green spaces, clean energy, and the revitalization of downtowns across the county.
The map unveiled on Wednesday shows the unnamed city sitting somewhere between the Solano County communities of Rio Vista and Suisun City. Other than that, it doesn’t give much away. It shows that the community would be a mix of residential neighborhoods and commercial businesses, along with an industrial sector and some open space. There would also be sheep, apparently, and what looks like a very large stork.
Perhaps the most important thing that the group announced this week was its East Solano Homes, Jobs, and Clean Energy Initiative, which it has officially filed with the Solano County Registrar of Voters. This ballot initiative will determine whether the group can move ahead with its development plans. The 83-page ballot initiative was uploaded to California Forever’s website, showing, for the first time, extensive details about the proposed project. The group needs to acquire 13,000 signatures from locals in support of the initiative for it to appear on this year’s ballot. After that, residents will decide whether they want the development when they vote in November.
The California Forever project was announced last summer and is backed by a coterie of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest and most influential figures, including people like Reid Hoffman, Marc Andreessen, Laurene Jobs, and others. The company behind the project purchased nearly a billion dollars worth of land parcels to use in the new city’s construction.
By all accounts, the project’s backers have their work cut out for them. Local opposition has been stiff. California Forever previously held a series of “town halls” throughout Solano County, the bulk of which went disastrously. County residents repeatedly showed up to the meetings and heckled the company’s CEO and project lead, former Goldman Sachs trader Jan Sramek. The fact that the company has tangled with local farmers and is currently suing some of them has not helped the matter.