Current:Home > InvestSilicon Valley-backed voter plan for a new California city won’t be on the November ballot after all -Quantum Capital Pro
Silicon Valley-backed voter plan for a new California city won’t be on the November ballot after all
View
Date:2025-04-19 03:31:11
FAIRFIELD, Calif. (AP) — A Silicon Valley-backed initiative to build a green city for up to 400,000 people in the San Francisco Bay Area on land now zoned for agriculture won’t be on the Nov. 5 ballot after all, officials said Monday.
The California Forever campaign qualified for the ballot in June, but a Solano County report released last week raised questions about the project and concluded it “may not be financially feasible.”
With Solano County supervisors set to consider the report on Tuesday, organizers suddenly withdrew the measure and said they would try again in two years.
The report found the new city — described on the California Forever website as an “opportunity for a new community, good paying local jobs, solar farms, and open space” — was likely to cost the county billions of dollars and create substantial financial deficits, while slashing agricultural production and potentially threatening local water supplies, the Bay Area News Group reported.
California Forever said project organizers would spend the next two years working with the county on an environmental impact report and a development agreement.
Delaying the vote “also creates an opportunity to take a fresh look at the plan and incorporate input from more stakeholders,” said a joint statement Monday by the county and California Forever.
“We are who we are in Solano County because we do things differently here,” Mitch Mashburn, chair of the county’s Board of Supervisors, said in the statement. “We take our time to make informed decisions that are best for the current generation and future generations. 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.”
The measure would have asked voters to allow urban development on 27 square miles (70 square kilometers) of land between Travis Air Force Base and the Sacramento River Delta city of Rio Vista currently zoned for agriculture. The land-use change is necessary to build the homes, jobs and walkable downtown proposed by Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader who heads up California Forever.
Opposition to the effort includes conservation groups and some local and federal officials who say the plan is a speculative money grab rooted in secrecy. Sramek outraged locals by covertly purchasing more than $800 million in farmland and even suing farmers who refused to sell.
The Solano Land Trust, which protects open lands, said in June that such large-scale development “will have a detrimental impact on Solano County’s water resources, air quality, traffic, farmland, and natural environment.”
Sramek has said he hoped to have 50,000 residents in the new city within the next decade. The proposal included an initial $400 million to help residents buy homes in the community, as well as an initial guarantee of 15,000 local jobs paying a salary of at least $88,000 a year.
veryGood! (92)
Related
- Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing
- Billions of people lack access to clean drinking water, U.N. report finds
- Vanderpump Rules' James Kennedy Addresses Near-Physical Reunion Fight With Tom Sandoval
- Empty Grocery Shelves and Rotting, Wasted Vegetables: Two Sides of a Supply Chain Problem
- Federal Spending Freeze Could Have Widespread Impact on Environment, Emergency Management
- Wedding costs are on the rise. Here's how to save money while planning
- Judge Orders Dakota Access Pipeline Review, Citing Environmental Justice
- What's driving the battery fires with e-bikes and scooters?
- Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing
- Inside the Love Lives of the Fast and Furious Stars
Ranking
- Scoot flight from Singapore to Wuhan turns back after 'technical issue' detected
- Georgia governor signs bill banning most gender-affirming care for trans children
- GOP Fails to Kill Methane Rule in a Capitol Hill Defeat for Oil and Gas Industry
- Michigan man arrested for planning mass killing at synagogue
- What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
- Kourtney Kardashian announces pregnancy with sign at husband Travis Barker's concert
- Sickle cell patient's success with gene editing raises hopes and questions
- Uh-oh. A new tropical mosquito has come to Florida. The buzz it's creating isn't good
Recommendation
Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
Exxon Climate Fraud Investigation Widens Over Missing ‘Wayne Tracker’ Emails
Michigan man arrested for planning mass killing at synagogue
In These U.S. Cities, Heat Waves Will Kill Hundreds More as Temperatures Rise
Costco membership growth 'robust,' even amid fee increase: What to know about earnings release
Several injured after Baltimore bus strikes 2 cars, crashes into building, police say
Padma Lakshmi Claps Back to Hater Saying She Has “Fat Arms”
Maternal deaths in the U.S. spiked in 2021, CDC reports