The measure to create the city was meant to be put on a ballot for Solano County voters to vote on in November. However, the idea has now been scrapped after a damning report was released on what will happen if the project goes ahead.

San Francisco is the most expensive Californian city, costing over $15,000 a month for a family of four. With prices this high, it’s no wonder people are choosing to leave.

After deciding not to put the measure to a ballot, everyone involved with the project has now chosen to apply to Solano County to attempt to get the project off the ground that way.

The new city was meant to be able to hold 400,000 residents, and while this is likely still going to be the case, those plans could quickly change.

There have been many land disputes regarding the project, which resulted in the lawsuit. The tech billionaires involved in the project won and were paid $510 million in damages. 

The lawsuit alleged that the billionaires overpaid the owners by approximately $170 million.

In an email obtained by The Times, one of the investors said investors purchased 1,400 acres of land in 2017 for less than $5,000 per acre. However, prices have since skyrocketed, with investors paying up to $15,000 per acre.

These issues include substantial financial deficits, a lack of agricultural production and threats to local water supplies. The report also states that the project might not be feasible financially.

However, the project’s CEO, Jan Sramek, decided to withdraw from the ballot measure and is now seeking approval to make a few small changes via typical county processes.

Stakeholders have questioned the project backers’ anonymous approach to buying thousands of acres of land. Another issue has been investors’ wishes to carry out the plan as quickly as possible. Sramek has repeatedly pushed for an expedited approvals process, arguing that the need for housing is too urgent to delay the project.

The New York Times reports that some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley have backed Flannery associates, such as Laurene Powell Jobs and Marc Andreessen. However, government officials began investigating these purchases due to anxieties that foreign interests might be propping up the company. 

The project has been controversial ever since it was announced, so voters not being able to vote on the matter will likely anger them even more.

In 2016, startup accelerator Y Combinator started looking into how building a new city could solve California’s housing crisis. The accelerator said: “We want to build cities for all humans — for tech and non-tech people. We’re not interested in building crazy libertarian utopias for techies.”

The backers of California Forever promised up to 87,000 new jobs, crystalline lagoons, a sports complex and at least 50,000 residents by 2040. Despite the dazzling pitch, the project never gained strong local support.

The New York Times reported that farmers accused him of pushing small farmers out of business and tearing families apart. “I’d like to welcome you as our neighbor, but it’s kind of difficult,” said Christine Mahoney to Sramek, who was in the middle of suing her for refusing to sell her farmlands.

While both are definitely needed, the anger surrounding this project might not work exactly as Sramek and others involved would have hoped.

However, the project’s delay only shows that not everything goes according to plan, and it’s important to have backup ideas prepared.

In that time, they have raised $800 million to put toward the project and have already purchased some farmland to use for it. The plan is for a walkable urban community, but there is no telling what the finalized project will look like.

Sramek said Californians are sick of high housing prices, homelessness and the inability to finish projects, like the high-speed rail that was supposed to connect the Bay Area and Los Angeles. “There’s a cultural moment where we realize the pendulum has gone too far. We can’t say we are about economic opportunity, and working-class Californians are leaving the state every year,” Sramek said.            

This could have a great impact on this project’s outcome and on whether it goes ahead in the first place. So far, based on the reports and opinions, things aren’t looking good.

There is a Facebook group called California ForNever, which has amassed over 2,000 members. The group posts vital parts of the county such as open green spaces and job creators that would not exist if the project went ahead.

One user shared a newspaper article that said Travis Air Force Base was the largest employer in Solano County. The user posted: “Workforce is about 13,414! Do I want to chance losing it??”

Christopher Cabaldon, a candidate for state senate to represent Solano County, said there is little left the investors can do to garner support from residents. “Ultimately, they ran into their own hubris,” Cabaldon said.

Billionaire Marc Andreessen plans to build a housing project in Solano County. Andreessen has pushed his motto, “It’s time to build,” in response to increasingly scarce and expensive housing in California.