Billionaire backers of new California city reveal map and details of proposed development
RIO VISTA, Calif. — The company backed by Silicon Valley billionaires that for years stealthily snapped up more than $800 million worth of rural land for a new walkable, affordable and green city between San Francisco and Sacramento now needs voters to embrace the idea.
Jan Sramek, the former Goldman Sachs trader spearheading the effort, spoke Wednesday to journalists and supporters about his vision for building a community on what’s now mostly farmland.
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His California Forever company needs approval from Solano County voters in November to bypass protections put in place in 1984 to keep agricultural land from being turned into urban space.
Wednesday’s presentation was the most detailed look yet at the community envisioned by Sramek and his billionaire backers — philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and others.
They picture 20,000 homes for 50,000 residents between Travis Air Force Base and the tiny city of Rio Vista, with rowhouses and apartment buildings between three and six stories high within walking distance to jobs, schools, bars, restaurants and grocery stores.
Eventually the city could grow to 400,000 people, the group says, but only if it can create at least 15,000 jobs that pay above-average wages. The plan calls for $400 million to help Solano County residents and air force base families buy homes in the proposed community, among other investments.
Veteran Democratic consultant Bill Carrick said the group faces a tough challenge winning over local residents at a time of high voter cynicism, hostility between political parties and inevitable doubts about wealthy outsiders coming into the community.
Sramek said he decided to build from scratch because the needs are too great to simply build within existing cities, as some critics have suggested. He said construction costs are too high to make affordable housing work and there’s not enough land to meet the demand for jobs and homes.
Solano County is the smart location to build in a region desperate for more housing, especially affordable homes for teachers, firefighters, police and other municipal workers who make a city run, said proponents.
The region is also attractive to military contractors, agriculture technology and construction tech companies seeking to innovate, said Gabriel Metcalf, head of planning for California Forever.
