Billionaire-Backed Bid for New Solano County City Will Likely Be on the Ballot

Episode Transcript

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Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra and welcome to the Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. California forever, the group backed by tech billionaires who want to build a city from scratch in Solano County, has been real busy these past few months. This year, they want to get their plan passed by voters in the November election, and now they say they’ve got enough signatures to put it on the ballot.

Jan Sramek: So I know voters have made that first decision and they have made it loud and clear. Over 20,000 Solano residents have signed the petition.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: If it clears this hurdle, voters will be asked to change county rules to make way for a new, walkable city of about 400,000 people near Rio Vista today. How California Forever has been trying to convince voters to get on board.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: This is a humongous issue, and California forever is wasting no time in getting started on getting out to the voters.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Adhiti Bandlamudi is a housing reporter for KQED.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: They announced last week that they collected more than enough signatures needed, and they basically started that process earlier than I think we all expected them to start. Can you remind us why California Forever even needs Solano County voters approval to do what they’re hoping to do?

Adhiti Bandlamudi: Yeah, Solano County is interesting because it has this provision called the Orderly Growth Initiative that basically restricts any sort of residential or commercial development to happen in areas that are already zoned for agriculture or that are sort of protected by this orderly growth initiative. The whole point is to sort of keep farmland as farmland and keep cities as cities.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: What California Forever is doing is this totally different thing, where they want to replace like 60,000 acres of farmland and turn it into a walkable city. By law for California forever. To start construction on a project like this, they have to bring it before the voters who have to approve this in order for them to start any sort of development process. They needed to get 13,062 signatures and they produced 20,000 signatures.

Jan Sramek: That’s more than 7000 signatures. More than was required.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: Now Jan Sramek, who is the CEO of California Forever, basically said in his press conference that that number is evidence of the amount of support that California forever got from the public.

Jan Sramek: From people from all walks of life, all parts of the county who are all saying the same thing.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: Now, for context, I spoke with a few campaign experts and campaign strategist who said California Forever hired PCI consultants. They’re one of the best signature gathering firms in the country, and if you hire the best of the best, then you’re going to get a result. And basically, they’re doing their best to make sure that this gets to November.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: They do sound really excited about where they’re at right now too.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: They do. They really do. I think they’re very hopeful about the future. The vibe of the press conference was definitely very excited and celebratory. At this press conference, you had actual Solano County Council members who were speaking in support of this plan, and it kind of feels like things are becoming a little bit more mixed now. It’s not a full on skepticism. Some people are actually becoming more open to it.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, clearly California for ever. Folks have been really busy these last couple of months. What exactly have they been up to?

Adhiti Bandlamudi: The last three months have been a lot of signature gathering work for them. They were very aggressive in getting those signatures. We actually, had had heard and then later confirmed from the registrar’s office that some residents complained that the signature gatherers were misleading or a bit too aggressive.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: We actually spoke to a woman, Tina Collins, who says that she was followed to her car by a California Forever signature gathering. They got, I think, like nine complaints, and we tried to see if the Secretary of state was investigating that. We couldn’t get an answer whether they were or not. They’ve also been trying to drum up support for their plan.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: From some of the organizations that I think people are looking to as like a bellwether. You know, we talk sometimes in campaigns about like single issue voters in this campaign. I’m seeing many people take Travis Air Force Base as that single issue. Like if Travis Air Force Base is okay with California forever, there are some people who are like, okay, we’ll be fine with it, too.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: California Forever has been coming up with these, like, ads that are very, like, veteran focused and sort of highlight the fact that they, you know, made sure to change their initiative language to specifically cater to Travis Air Force bases needs. So they’re really leaning into that. So as we get closer to November. We’re only going to see more of that language.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: How much money have they spent so far trying to get the word out?

Adhiti Bandlamudi: They’ve spent about $2 million so far within basically the first three months of their campaign, and a majority of that money has gone towards signature gathering. Other expenditures have gone towards campaign strategy literature. So that means, like pamphlets and booklets that that explain what the plan is about, different things like that.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I mean, is that a lot of money?

Adhiti Bandlamudi: It is a lot of money for Solano County, but comparatively, you know, California wide, it’s not really that much. It’s kind of par for the course.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I know they’ve also been gathering more support from local politicians in Solano County. Right. Even though they were kind of on a lot of people’s bad side at the beginning of all of this.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: They were, and I will say, the support that they’ve gotten from local politicians has been slow. But, you know, significant. For example, Vacaville Vice Mayor Greg Ritchie spoke at that press conference in support of the East Solano Plan, as it’s called.

Greg Ritchie: I think with this project. We can take clear canvas and create the design that we choose for our community. I think together with their passion, we can do that. We’re here SLO County.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: And when we were looking through campaign finance records, we actually saw that the wife of Fairfield Council member Rick Vaccaro was paid $4,000 in campaign consulting. So it’s kind of interesting how slowly there are local politicians who might have distanced themselves from California forever at first. Now people are starting to take sides. People are starting to say, actually, this plan is a good idea.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Coming up, we’ll talk about the groups against California forever and hear from some residents about how they’re feeling. Stay with us.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Have there been any more, I guess, organized efforts against California forever in Solano County?

Adhiti Bandlamudi: Oh yeah. There are actually two packs that were formed. The Greenbelt Alliance Solano Initiative Fund is one of them. And no to California Forever. That’s like literally what the pack is called is another one. Both of them basically oppose the plan and are campaigning against it.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: And are these like environmental groups? Are they just concerned residents? Like, who are the people behind these packs?

Adhiti Bandlamudi: It’s kind of a combination of both. The Green Belt Alliance is one of the loudest voices that I’ve seen in my reporting, and they’re a collection of, you know, local Solano residents who are very skeptical of the plan and really support the Orderly Growth Initiative.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: They consist of local politicians who are against it, farmers who want to protect that farmland, environmentalists who are worried that this new city will just create more sprawl, and it will just cause people to drive more because it’s literally in the middle of farmland. I will say, I think many of the talking points from these groups sort of draw back to the cloud of mystery surrounding California forever, and what their true intentions are.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: The company did buy 60,000 acres of land really in secret since 2017, and were only forced to come out publicly about their plan like last year, because a New York Times investigation found out about this company who is like buying up all the land.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: There is a lot of skepticism surrounding that. There are people who feel like the promises that are being made on the campaign trail are too lofty. They don’t seem like they’re going to be able to follow through with those promises.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Yeah. And not to mention the folks behind this idea are tech billionaires from Silicon Valley, which is far, far away from Solano County.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: And, you know, some of those tech billionaires live in Atherton, where housing is expensive. And some of those billionaires have come out against housing in their own backyard, yet they want to build housing in Solano County. And depending on how you feel about housing and all of these different issues, like you’re, you know, it’s dicey. Excuse me. Hi there. I’m a reporter for KQED, and I’m doing a story about California.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I mean, I know already you spoke with a bunch of folks in in Sassoon and Dixon about how they’re feeling. Who do you hear from? Who I guess is excited about this? And what’s their take on this?

Adhiti Bandlamudi: The person who showed the most excitement was this man, Tyree Carey. I met him outside of a Sassoon like Walmart Supercenter.

Tyree Carrie: Honestly, I feel like it’s something that’s very necessary.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: He was basically like, we need this.

Tyree Carrie: There’s a lot of people who are struggling with like affordable housing and just housing in general. So I always think it’s also when there’s more options available. Of course, things are affordable and just, you know, being able to generate more income in an area as far as giving people work, things of that nature.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: And he was sort of like, even if these promises are like half fulfilled, it’ll be good for the county.

Tyree Carrie: I think there are a lot of empty promises just in general. So if somebody is trying to do something good is I feel like it’s worth a shot. If it doesn’t work out, we could always try something different.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: He sort of was like, at least it’s something.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: What did you hear from people who maybe aren’t so excited about this idea?

Adhiti Bandlamudi: I was talking to Khristiana Knight in Dixon.

Khristiana Knight: Born and raised. Brought up, grew up in Solano County.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: She right now lives in Sacramento, but she used to live in Solano County and had to move because of affordability reasons. But her family still lives in Solano County.

Khristiana Knight: If you’re going to bring affordable housing to our community, I’m 100% for that. But with that, you’re going to have to take into account the responsibilities of infrastructure, the roads, the water supply, energy supplies.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: She’s still concerned about how affordable is the housing going to be.

Khristiana Knight: So I’m curious to know what kind of people will actually be able to afford to live in these houses, because the heart of the communities are not the people that move out here. So they can take Amtrak to commute to the city. They’re the people that work here in the community, in the agriculture, in the bureaucracies, in the office buildings, in the warehouse districts, Travis Air Force Base, trucking.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: And for what it’s worth, those are questions that California Forever has not answered yet. California forever, I think, will have to answer at least some of them in order to convince a lot of people to vote in favor of it. But we’ll see.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: When can we know whether this will, in fact be a question that Solano County voters will have to decide on in November?

Adhiti Bandlamudi: So right now, the Registrar of Voters is like counting all of the signatures and making sure that it’s actually the right amount. But after they say, hey, they have the right amount of signatures, it goes to the Board of Supervisors, and the Board of Supervisors has the final say on, you know, it going on the ballot.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: One of the supervisors, Mitch Mashburn, he did say that if the ballot initiative comes to the Board of Supervisors, he’s going to ask for a report that basically shows all of the impacts, both negative and positive, that the new town would have on Solano County, the date that really matters, where everything has to be done.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: The Board of Supervisors has to sign off and say this is going to the voters is August 9th. So if they make it past August 9th, we’re going to see it on the ballot. And because they already submitted signatures so early, like end of April, it’s likely that they’ll make it.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: So wherever I guess folks stand on this, these billionaires are going to need Solano County voters approval in November if they want to get this done. So do you get the sense at all that all this money that they’re spending, all this campaigning, these billboards are working on voters here?

Adhiti Bandlamudi: When I spoke to the campaign, analysts, I asked them this question, like, if you spend enough money, like, can money buy votes? And what they were saying is like, not really. Money can get you on the ballot, but it can’t necessarily win you votes. What it is doing is it is raising awareness about the issue.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: There were very few people who I met who didn’t know anything about California forever. Most people had an opinion one way or another. There were very few people who are like, I don’t know, maybe people who are speaking were like, oh yeah, I hate it. Or oh yeah, I love it.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I mean, I guess as a housing reporter, why are you interested in, in this story and then in continuing to follow it?

Adhiti Bandlamudi: This story has so many, like, juicy elements that are like so tricky for me because the promise of California forever is is really enticing, but it is being built in an area that doesn’t have existing infrastructure. So that means that it’s going to take a lot to get the city built. I think there are a lot of promises in this project that are quite lofty.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: 15,000 new jobs paying almost $90,000 a year, down payment assistance programs, walkable streets, new public transportation. They’re promising a lot. And if they’re able to follow through on their grand plan, it will be one of the first successes in this kind of master planned city to exist in modern American society.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: Because many developers have proposed master plan communities like this in the past, and they’ve all become suburbs, basically. So if somebody can do it, then that’s interesting, but they have to be able to do it.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Adhiti, thank you so much.

Adhiti Bandlamudi: Thanks for having me.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: That was Adhiti Bandlamudi, housing reporter for KQED. By the way, we’ve got tons of older episodes on California forever and the people behind it. I’ll leave you some links to those in our show notes if you want to take a look back at those. This 36 minute conversation with oddity was cut down and edited by producer Esquinca.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Ellie Prickett-Morgan is our intern. They scored this episode an ad about the tape. Our senior editor is Alan Montecillo. Music courtesy of the Audio Network. The Bay is a listener supported production of KQED in San Francisco. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Peace.