California Forever, which bought 60,000 acres, has received fierce opposition from local officials and environmental groups
The controversial plan backed by Silicon Valley billionaires to build a new city in northern California farmland could come before voters later this year.
California Forever, the company that quietly acquired 60,000 acres of land in Solano county and recently revealed it planned to build a city there, announced on Wednesday it would submit a ballot initiative asking voters to clear the way for the project.
Along with the announcement of the ballot initiative, the company shed further light on its plans. It is proposing to create a new walkable and sustainable community with a variety of housing options, including apartments and row houses, on 18,600 acres in east Solano county, about 60 miles from San Francisco. Their plan also includes a pledge to create as many as 15,000 jobs, a $400m fund for down payment assistance as well as a requirement that at least 4,000 acres be used for parks, trails and other green spaces.
If this is supposed to be some sort of vote dilution thing I feel like you’d have more productive outcomes building a city around the Idaho/Montana/Wyoming borders using the geothermal power of the Yellowstone plume to support the city’s power demands.
Or you could be even more productive vs cost of investment and relocate the offices of major federal departments and agencies to inject a bunch of educated professionals into all those rural states that’ll become the kernels around which new urbanized and educated voting blocs will form.
The main thing will be offering benefits attractive enough that those federal employees will actually bite for it to work.
It seems more like a way to maintain their company presence in Silicon Valley while slowly transitioning everything to this new city, not too far away, and try to make it the new Silicon Valley but actually better planned for long term, high population density. As an added bonus, they get to control the local government to crack down on crime and homelessness. And they’ll also get to collect rent from their employees. It’s too expensive to buy all the current real estate in SF so they can build their own 60 miles away and get everyone to relocate there and slowly raise the prices and make a shit ton of money.