The effort to build a new city in rural California has reached a major milestone after qualifying for the proposal to go before local voters in November.
But the group backing the plan, called California Forever, must convince voters to support its plans to turn 50,000 acres of Solano County into a city.
Led by former Goldman Sachs banker Jan Sramek, California Forever wants to turn the territory into a walkable “old-fashioned” city that could grow to 400,000 residents.
Envisioned as a largely middle-class utopia with safe neighborhoods and well-paying jobs, the group says it already has eager companies lined up.
The group now must convince voters to back its ideas, already facing opposition from local leaders, environmental groups and locals alike.
New renderings from patrons show the lives of residents and hopes for the city.
Opponents point to a recent poll they conducted that found 70 percent of respondents were skeptical of the measure.
Former Solano County Supervisor Duane Kromm told the Los Angeles Times that “there are a litany of reasons” to oppose the project.
Kromm said among them is the county’s long-term commitment to keeping development limited to existing cities.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Thompson wrote an op-ed against the project in his local newspaper.
Thompson, a Democrat, wrote: ‘I strongly support efforts to increase the number of good-paying jobs, implement clean energy and provide opportunity to our region.
“But these efforts require strong public policies that work for our community, not lavish promises that may never be fulfilled.”
On Tuesday, Sramek said the question now for voters in Solano County was “a referendum on what we want the future of California to be.”
He added: ‘The number of people saying yes to this increases every day, as seen in the figures. And that is also seen in the support for the initiative.’
Led by former Goldman Sachs banker Jan Sramek, California Forever wants to turn the land into an “old-fashioned” walkable city.
The investment group, whose identities were finally revealed in late August, acquired about 814 more acres in October, according to county records, meaning it now owns more than 53,000 acres in the region.
Pictured: An early artistic rendering of the proposed city from the California Forever website.
The East Solano Housing, Jobs and Clean Energy Initiative required 13,500 signatures to appear on the ballot and amassed about 20,000.
This forces the project to be on the Solano County Board of Supervisors’ agenda next month ahead of a vote on the waiver in November.
The board is expected to order a study on how the project would affect local traffic, pollution and environmental damage, among other considerations.
California Forever has said a dozen companies are committed to creating jobs if the project ever gets off the ground.
These include aerospace and defense manufacturer Hadrian, and Serve Robotics, which makes autonomous robots that travel the trail to deliver food.
Another is Living Carbon, which grows plants that absorb more carbon than regular plants, and indoor vertical farming company Plenty, and Cover, which builds custom-designed granny flats.
High-end sports facilities are also on the agenda, and the group has already committed $500,000 to the planning stage.
Facilities for baseball, football, basketball, soccer, volleyball, tennis, gymnastics and swimming would be included and could accommodate players from across the county.
Sramek said local parents told him, “We spend too much time taking our kids to sporting events in Sacramento and the Bay Area.”
The announcement also promises $400 million in down payment assistance for residents and 15,000 new “good-paying” jobs in manufacturing and technology.
Clean energy also features prominently in artists’ impressions, with proposals for solar farms to help power the city.
The renderings also show the city clearly car-free, dominated by pedestrians and cyclists.
Sramek said he hoped to build a “walkable” city like the Czech Republic town where he grew up, where “people can live close to shops.”
Other proposed features include commercial buildings and parks, with one image showing people kayaking through a nature reserve.
Other incentives include a proposed $70 million in funding for college and vocational scholarships, or to start or grow small businesses in the new city.
The group pledged $200 million in developments to renovate or build new housing and commercial properties in other cities in the county.
California Forever proposed solar farms in the development that could generate enough clean energy to power the equivalent of 1.5 million homes.
A 15,000-acre buffer zone will separate the city from nearby Travis Air Force Base.
Images shared by the group show rolling landscapes with families enjoying a picnic among a group of trees, while young people are seen riding bicycles.
The company described the area as “one of the worst for agriculture in Solano County.” Land where for years nothing has been able to grow’
The images shared by the group show rolling landscapes with families enjoying a picnic among a group of trees, while young people are seen riding bicycles.
Urban landscapes are dominated by pedestrians and cyclists, with outdoor cafes filling the town square and no cars to be seen.
The scale of the project, spanning more than 50,000 acres, is truly enormous.
For comparison, San Francisco has only 30,000 acres, while the New York borough of Manhattan has just 14,500 acres.
The Villages, the massive master-planned retirement community in Florida, covers about 51,200 acres, or more than 80 square miles.
Jan Sramek, leader of California Forever, is a 36-year-old financial prodigy who made a name and a fortune in his early 20s as an emerging markets trader in Goldman Sachs’ London office.
As a high school student in York, Sramek broke the British record for A-level exams by achieving 10 As in a diverse set of subjects and graduated from the London School of Economics.
In 2009, when he was just 22, Sramek was the youngest financier to be included in Financial News’ annual list of 100 ‘rising stars’.
Days after turning 24, Sramek mysteriously left Goldman Sachs and disappeared from the spotlight.
Sramek has since moved to the Bay Area and appears to have been quietly working on his plan for California Forever since 2017.