Prominent conservation group urges opposition

A prominent conservation group on Thursday came out against a plan backed by Silicon Valley billionaires for a new, utopian city the size of Vallejo in Solano County.

The Solano Land Trust, which has close ties to Bay Area environmental groups and works with state agencies including the Coastal Conservancy and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, is urging county residents to vote no on the city-from-scratch project in November when it is to appear as a ballot initiative to rezone 17,500 acres of agricultural land.

“A development of this magnitude will have a detrimental impact on Solano County’s water resources, air quality, traffic, farmland, and natural environment,” the Land Trust said in a news release. “The associated pollution will be harmful to both our community and environmental health.”

The project, California Forever, was birthed in 2017, led by former Wall Street trader Jan Sramek. It gained financial backing from billionaire venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Michael Moritz, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and businesswoman Laurene Powell Jobs. Through its real estate arm Flannery Associates, California Forever spent five years secretly buying tens of thousands of acres of ranch land before abruptly sparking an angry uproar among Solano County’s citizenry by filing a $510 million lawsuit against holdout landowners they accused of conspiring, through “endless greed,” to overcharge them.

The plan, suddenly in a spotlight, soon became mired in a broader controversy, with doubts and pointed questions coming from local and state officials all the way up to members of the U.S. Congress. Farmers opposed to the project say it would destroy important agricultural production and a way of life that goes back through generations of ranching families.

In April, California Forever, which has spent more than $800 million buying more than 60,000 acres, said it had gathered and submitted to county authorities more than 20,000 signatures, far beyond the 13,000 valid signatures it needs to make the November ballot. Solano County officials say they will determine by Monday whether the proponents have enough signatures.

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