Children riding bikes on tree-lined streets, kayakers traversing a calm river and people fishing along a beautiful waterway on sunny day in a city with local jobs, solar farms and trade schools. Sounds Utopian, right? This is precisely how a group of billionaires planning a city near San Francisco imagine their utopia to look like. However, at first, they must win over voters and local leaders.
California Forever, the parent company of Flannery Associates, recently launched its website. It shared the first images of what the city in Solano County could look like if it ultimately gets built. According to various news reports, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen are among the tech tycoons behind Flannery Associates.
According to Patch, the project issued a poll to residents last month to gauge support for “a new city with tens of thousands of new homes," solar energy farm and new parks funded entirely by the private sector.
But to build anything resembling a city on what is now farmland, the group must first convince Solano County voters to approve a ballot initiative to allow for urban uses on that land, a protection that has been in place since 1984. However, local and federal officials still have questions about the group's intentions, stated the Patch report.
California Forever said in a statement that the group had met the county’s Congressional and state legislative delegation recently.
Among the most prominent critics of the project is US Representative John Garamendi (California district). “I know they have not thought this through and I’m absolutely convinced that the wealthy billionaires that financed this did not do their due diligence,” Garamendi told The Post.
However, the organisers admitted on the website that they had “completed surveys and interviews with about 2,000 residents of Solano County” in recent years". “Our company is committed to Solano and this project for the long term,” the site said.
According to The Independent, the group said they would continue to work with "local leaders" to "craft a shared vision for Solano County's future”.
However, a New York Post report said Catherine Moy, the mayor of the city of Fairfield, said her office is “looking at every angle to try to stop” Flannery from proceeding with its plans. She estimated that “95 percent of the hundreds of people who contacted me oppose this”.
The New York Times reported that Flannery Associates aimed to build a new city, operated using clean energy that would create thousands of jobs while offering residents reliable public transportation and urban living. The report also stated that $800 million was spent to scoop up the farmland in Solano County to turn it into a modern metropolis.
According to The Guardian, California Forever aims to establish a new city with homes of various sizes and costs with walkable neighbourhoods that are close to shops and schools and open spaces around the community. The land is sandwiched between Napa Valley, Sacramento and San Francisco.
The Post reported that the 55,000 acres, which the group has acquired consist of mostly dry, inhospitable farmland beset by harsh winds, turbines and abandoned gas wells.
The website said the project could bring “thousands of permanent, good-paying local jobs” and a large solar farm. However, before moving on to its project, Flannery Associates may have to win over the support of Solano County residents and navigate various red tape at the city and state levels.
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