Billionaires behind a plan to build a green city from the ground up got off to a rocky start, with two setbacks and behind schedule putting their proposal before California voters in November. .
In January, former Goldman Sachs trader Jan Slamek announced a strict voting plan for the proposed San Francisco-Sacramento community. The plan envisions 20,000 homes, transport infrastructure, schools, jobs and green spaces for an initial 50,000 residents. He has since amended the bill twice to address concerns raised by Solano County and the neighboring U.S. Air Force base.
Thursday is the deadline for the county attorney’s office to give the ballot initiative a title and outline so petitioners can take to the streets for the 13,000 pens they need and, hopefully, thousands more as a cushion. The delay means campaigns have just two months to collect signatures instead of three if they want to give election officials the maximum amount of time to verify signatures.
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“You’re going to be caught up in a mathematical game of whether you’re going to get the time and the people to sign your petition,” said Jim Ross, a veteran Democratic political consultant based in Oakland. “Losing a month is a big deal.”
But campaign spokesman Brian Brokaw said he was confident in the Nov. 5 vote.
“We’ve been on a path of making sure we get this right and at the same time recognizing that time is running out,” he said. “At the same time, we believe that the modifications we have made to this measure will go a long way to significantly increasing our chances of success in November, and it was definitely worth the extra time we took to get it right. ”
A map of the city the billionaire proposed to build in Solano County, California, is displayed during a press conference on January 17, 2024 in Rio Vista, California. (AP Photo/Janny Herr, File)
Sramek is asking Solano County voters to allow urban development on rural land his company has secretly purchased for at least $800 million since 2018. This is to build what he advocates as a walkable community for up to 400,000 residents with a cute downtown, good-paying jobs, and affordable housing. . The state desperately needs more housing, especially affordable housing.
Sramek did not say how much money he was prepared to spend on the effort. His company, California Forever, relies on deep pockets from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, including philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.
But large sums of money do not necessarily lead to successful voting. In 2022, California voters rejected two efforts to expand gambling, even though supporters spent at least $460 million.
Critics say the delay is due to an unconventional election that has been operated in secret for years, avoided local cooperation, and is now attempting to break ground on farmland that voters chose in 1984 to protect from urbanization. They claim that it is equivalent to exercise.
“What that tells us is that they’re missing a little bit of the process of actually involving people,” said Sadie Wilson, director of planning and research at the Greenbelt Alliance. The environmental advocacy group is part of Solano Together, a coalition that includes agricultural and open space interests and environmental groups.
Opponents of the plan say it makes big promises but is surprisingly light on details.
A sustainable way to build more housing is to build on existing city limits rather than rush into large-scale development on 27 square miles of land in a county of 450,000 people with a sensitive ecosystem and already strained water supplies. Wilson said.
For years, local residents have wondered who commandeered the plot containing the cows and wind farm. Last summer, we learned that Mr. Slamek and his Silicon Valley investors wanted a new, as-yet-unnamed development that could become a city or remain part of the county. They were stunned.
Mr. Slamek then spoke with two furious lawmakers who have been seeking for years to uncover whether foreign adversaries or investors were behind the land purchase between Travis Air Force Base and the Sacramento River Delta city of Rio Vista. He went on a kind of apology tour, including talks with Councilors John Garamendi and Mike Thompson remain opposed to the plan.
In January, Sramek held a press conference outlining his voting plan, submitted it to the county elections office, and withdrew it all on the same day after county officials asked for language clarifying the process.
Ross, the consultant, said California Forever could have avoided the situation if the campaign had shared its proposal with local officials beforehand. “This is a very external approach,” he says.
Solano County Attorney Bernadette Curry said officials asked for the technical change to make clear the county has discretion to approve a development agreement with the company before construction begins. Previous efforts included language that required approval from county supervisors.
Under the initiative, the development agreement includes $400 million to help county residents and Travis Air Force Base families purchase homes in the community, $200 million to the county’s existing downtown, and $200 million to California Forever. It is clearly stated that 10 warranties made by the company are included. Environmental impact studies will also be required.
After base officials expressed concerns about the ability to carry out flight operations, the camp again withdrew the initiative. The revised concept would create a larger buffer zone between the development and the base.
John Gardner, the county’s assistant registrar of voters, said there is no set deadline for submitting signatures. However, the Solano County Board of Supervisors has until August 8 to approve signatures on the ballot, giving election officials 30 to 90 days to verify signatures.
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The 90-day period means the campaign has until early May to submit its paperwork.
Solano Together’s Wilson said the approach taken by California Forever raises national questions about how decisions about development, agricultural land and climate resiliency are made, and who can circumvent the rules. He said there was.
“This really deserves a lot of attention because of the huge wave this is going to cause and the precedent it could set for other places around the country,” she said.
