Move FM Global News

SAN FRANCISCO, California: California Forever, a Silicon Valley-backed green city project for up to 400,000 people in the San Francisco Bay Area, claimed it had submitted enough signatures to set up an election for approval in November.

If Solano County’s elections office verifies the campaign, which submitted more than 20,000 signatures but would need only 13,000 valid ones to qualify for the ballot, voters will decide in autumn whether to approve the urban development on current agricultural land.

During a news conference this week, Jan Sramek, former Goldman Sachs trader who heads California Forever, said that he spoke to thousands of people who want careers and homes but can no longer afford to because of high housing costs and a lack of nearby work.

“They are fed up with this malaise that’s plagued California for the last 20 years with this culture of saying no to everything that has made it increasingly impossible for working families to reach the California dream,” Sramek said.

The still unnamed development between Travis Air Force Base and the Sacramento River Delta city of Rio Vista would mix homes, green space, a walkable downtown, and jobs.

Sramek said that within the next decade, he expects to start with 50,000 residents with homes starting at US$400,000. However, Redfin said that the median sale price of a home in March was closer to $600,000.

Philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and other wealthy figures are backing the controversial project.

It has also faced strong opposition from some elected officials and other critics, who claim that Sramek’s plan is a speculative money grab that is light on details.

Sramek also angered locals by quietly buying farmland worth more than $800 million since 2018 and suing farmers who refused to sell.

Princess Washington, mayor protem of Suisun City, said, “What people are really upset about are the tactics being used to obtain the goal at the end. The promise of jobs and affordable housing, that is not a guarantee. What we are looking at is a policy change and overturning of our stance against sprawl development.”