‘GOLDEN’ PROMISES
$400M in goodies offered for OK of new Calif. city
A controversial proposal to build a billionaire-backed city in California is trying to win over locals with a package of lavish benefits, including $400 million in “down payment assistance” for homebuyers and a guarantee of 15,000 new jobs.
As The Post has reported, California Forever, the firm behind nearly $1 billion in secretive land purchases in Solano County northeast of San Francisco, has faced major blowback from residents and federal lawmakers alike ahead of the November public vote that will decide if the project can move forward.
California Forever said the $400 million in financial assistance would provide a pathway for county residents, including “working families, teachers, nurses, police and firefighters, and construction workers,” to own property in the new development, according to its website.
Officials also insisted that the city would support at least 15,000 jobs that would “pay at least 125% of . . . average weekly wage by the time we hit 50,000 residents.” The county median household income was $97,037 as of 2022, according to Census data.
‘A plan that fits in’
“The one thing that hopefully people will say when they look at this plan is, ‘You know, they really listened,’ ” California Forever CEO Jan Sramek said at an invite-only press conference detailing the proposal. “It is a plan that fits in. It respects the heritage of the county.”
The bold promises are part of a list of so-called “ten guarantees” that the project’s executives say they will provide if their ballot passes. California Forever said the pledges would be “legally binding and enforceable by the county,” although it wasn’t clear how that mechanism would work.
Sramek’s plan also earmarked $200 million to revitalize neighboring cities, including the city of Fairfield, whose mayor, Catherine Moy, is among the project’s most vocal critics.
Moy told The Post that she didn’t receive the details about California Forever’s plans until they were posted online and that Sramek had canceled a meeting with Fairfield officials days before the announcement.
“He promised, when we met with him last, that he would come and sit down with us and show us what they were going to release before they released it to see if we had any feedback,” Moy said. “Well, that didn’t happen.”
Another $70 million is set aside for scholarships, vocational training and small-business support and $30 million toward protection of the environment.
The firm said its development would primarily consist of row houses and apartment buildings and be built on approximately 18,600 acres, a fraction of the roughly 62,000 acres it has acquired while becoming the county’s largest landowner.
Silicon Valley titans, including Marc Andreesen, Reid Hoffman and Laurene Powell Jobs, are bankrolling the project, which critics have blasted as a ruthless land grab that will force out locals and damage fragile ecosystems.