It looks like forever will have to wait.
California Forever, the organization behind the East Solano Plan, a billionaire-backed initiative to build a semi-utopian city from scratch in a rural stretch of the Bay Area, has decided to cancel its planned November ballot measure and commence a two-year project development process.
It’s a major bump in the road for the group in its effort to attract 400,000 people to rural Solano County by providing “middle-class homes in safe, walkable neighborhoods” in what would essentially be a startup city.
In a joint statement released by Solano County Supervisor Mitch Mashburn and California Forever CEO Jan Sramek, the group said it will pull its ballot measure that would have made widespread planning and zoning changes to enable the creation of the city. The measure qualified for the ballot last month.
Instead, California Forever will submit proposed planning changes to local authorities, prepare a full environmental report and negotiate a development agreement with officials.
Mashburn said the group’s decision to appeal directly to voters ahead of those steps “was a mistake.”
“This politicized the entire project, made it difficult for us and our staff to work with them and forced everyone in our community to take sides,” Mashburn said in the statement.
He added that the slower process might allow California Forever to more effectively show how the group’s plans will provide water, solve transportation challenges and build “billions of dollars of infrastructure, without increasing our taxes.”
Since going public with its efforts last year, California Forever has been attempting to garner support for its city by promising jobs and economic opportunities, with mixed results.
Along the way, the group polled residents, sued landowners whom it accused of being a “cartel” conspiring to drive up prices and created a mini-schism within local housing advocacy groups.
Major funders of the effort include tech industry investors and business leaders. Among them are LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Stripe founders Patrick and John Collison, philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs and Michael Moritz, chairman of The Standard.
Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader turned urban planner, was more sanguine about the group’s efforts. In the statement, he said he believes the state’s lack of progress on housing development has stymied economic progress and harmed the ability of residents to stay and raise families, underscoring the need for the East Solano Plan.
Sramek said reshuffling California Forever’s plans won’t affect its “ambitious timeline.” Once environmental reviews are completed and development agreements are hammered out, the group expects to bring the full package back for approval in 2026.
“We believe that with this process, we can build a shared vision that passes with a decisive majority and creates broad consensus for the future,” Sramek said.