Delta – Enviro Updates

California Forever pushes Newsom to ease hurdles for proposed new city

June 25, 2026

Laura Waxman & Sophia Bollag, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Backers of the plan to build a new city in Solano County say they are in talks with Gov. Gavin Newsom over legislation that would ease regulatory hurdles for the company’s planned development of a dense, walkable city and a shipbuilding facility along the county’s waterfront.

Newsom’s spokespeople did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Chronicle about the talks, but the billionaire-backed California Forever project has hired two longtime Newsom allies, which appears to signal that the group is serious about seeking legislation to help circumvent local opposition and curtail CEQA opposition.

In recent months, former state legislative leaders Darrell Steinberg and Bob Hertzberg have been hired to continue rebranding California Forever’s proposal to build an urban enclave in rural Solano County as a conduit for economic growth by bringing new manufacturing and shipbuilding jobs to the region.

Land Useag land, California Forever, CEQA, Delta, development, wetlands

California Forever wants a CEQA exemption for their new city

June 25, 2026

Jim DeKloe, SIERRA CLUB SOLANO GROUP

As you likely know, a group of Silicon Valley billionaires now known as California Forever secretly bought up about 100 square miles of Solano County and also sued the family farmers who wouldn’t sell to them. They say that want to build a new city on this unincorporated farmland currently zoned for agriculture. This proposal is big – 175,000 new houses and 400,000 people – it would be an Oakland/ Minneapolis/ Tulsa/ Bakersfield sized bedroom community and bigger than Cleveland, Cincinnati, Honolulu, Anaheim – it’s big. If it existed today it would be the ninth largest city in California and would be larger than the largest city in nineteen states – it’s big. And a giant city has giant environmental impacts.

Last week it became clear that California Forever is using the influence that its money buys to try to gain special treatment from the California government – they are trying to have the Governor’s Office exempt the entire project from CEQA review. And Go-Biz, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, seems willing to do it. It’s likely that they will accomplish this by adding a rider bill to the state budget like they did last year for the advanced manufacturing exemption.

The California Forever scheme has many moving parts and it isn’t clear which parts a special interest bill would cover. Besides the 175,000 houses, California Forever’s stated plans include an industrial area called “the Solano Foundry” and the proposed Collinsville 7,500 acre boat-building facility. A group out of Texas called Saronic that makes drone boats that deliver explosives to other ships shares investors with CF. It is likely that the “shipbuilding” facility will likely go to Brownsville TX – their Commission voted this week to give Saronic a 20 year 95% tax break. And the City of Rio Vista believes that their unstated plans include a massive data center. Each of these components would have a gigantic impact on the environment, on the quality of life of existing residents, and on the continued operation of Travis Air Force Base.

Land UseCalifornia Forever, CEQA, Delta, development, wetlands

California Forever plan for new city of 400,000 divides Solano County

March 21, 2026

Glen Martin, BAY CITY NEWS

The two men stood near a rickety barbed wire fence by state Highway 12 between Suisun City and Rio Vista in Solano County, looking east over a vast tract of gently rolling rangeland.

California Forever is located between Travis Air Force Base and Rio Vista in Solano County — California Forever location.

In the summer, this sprawling property will be sere and brown. But now, freshened by heavy winter rains, it is intensely green. Wetlands dot the landscape, some supporting Canada geese and mallard ducks dabbling in the water. Northern harriers and red-tailed hawks cruise overhead, seeking mice and voles in the grasses and emerging wildflowers below.

Both men admired the view. But Jim DeKloe, a biology professor at Solano Community College, and John Harter, the owner of Waterfront Comics in Suisun City, have different visions for the property.

To DeKloe, the land is fine just as it is: a spectacular open space burgeoning with wildlife and supporting rare ecosystems such as vernal pools and native grasslands. Harter, on the other hand, shares the dream of Flannery Associates, a group of wealthy investors led by Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader. Flannery — and Harter — want to see this 100-square-mile parcel developed. They hope to see a new city rising here, one that will ultimately support 400,000 residents at full build-out.

The project is called California Forever, and for three years it has pitted the residents of Solano County against each other. What started off as an acrimonious flame war between supporters and detractors has now settled into a grinding battle of attrition.

Habitats, Land UseCalifornia Forever, Delta, Solano County

A hunger for answers on California Forever’s environmental impacts

March 4, 2026

Tanvi Dutta Gupta, BAY NATURE

It’s been two and a half years since news emerged of a tech-billionaire-backed idea to put a 400,000-person city in Solano County, and a lot of big questions remain—as indicated by the 616 pages of public comments just on the notice that an environmental impact report was coming.

After California Forever pulled a controversial ballot measure that would have put the development in voters’ hands, the project kept moving forward. Now the project has been reimagined as an expansion of tiny, broke Suisun City, and California Forever has officially begun preparing the environmental impact report people first asked for two years ago. It will be the first comprehensive look at what the massive development could mean for nature in southeastern Solano County.

The public comments, submitted by 38 individuals or groups, offer feedback on the environmental impact report’s notice of preparation, or NOP, a step that lets government agencies and members of the public chime in about what they want to see in the draft report. Project developers must address these comments in the report to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. But such comments rarely attract much public interest: Jim Bermudez, deputy city manager for Suisun City, says in his 25 years of experience in city permitting, he’s “never really been down that road.”

The area for the proposed urban and industrial development is part of the larger Jepson Prairie ecosystem, home to California’s last remaining claypan vernal pools, and one of the few remaining rural corners of the Bay Area in a state where agricultural land is on the decline. California Forever told Bay Nature over email that its development will be “the most sustainable city in the United States.”

Habitats, Land UseCalifornia Forever, Delta, Jepson Prairie ecosystem

Op-Ed: California is failing its signature salmon

October 12, 2025

Tom Philp, PRESS DEMOCRAT

“Basically, we sit on the edge of extinction,” said Jeffrey Mount, a longtime expert in California rivers who conducts research at the Public Policy Institute of California. There have been successes, most notably the removal of dams on the Klamath River. It is the primary wild population of the Sacramento River watershed with the dangerously dwindling numbers.

California salmon are as central to our historic identity as the symbol on our state flag, the California grizzly. It is a sad and ironic tragedy that the grizzly has been extinct for generations. What does it say about us if salmon may soon follow?

California is known around the globe for its commitment to environmentalism. But the state is struggling. Much is chronicled about how California isn’t on target to meet climate change goals, such as our pioneering plans for “net zero” emissions of global warming gases in just two decades. There is less attention on how the state is equally failing the signature inhabitants of its natural world.

Losing salmon would be an ecological disaster for our freshwater ecosystems, forests, riverbanks and other native species if their links to the salmon were severed. Healthy salmon runs mean jobs for Californians, but the industry generating $1 billion is at risk, as is a historic piece of California’s culture.

Habitats, WildlifeDelta, endangered species, Sacramento River, salmon, salmon habitat

Billionaire backers of new Solano County city reveal map and details of proposed development

January 17, 2024

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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, will speak Wednesday about his plans to create a walkable California city flush with affordable housing and jobs on what’s now mostly farmland. His California Forever company needs approval from Solano County voters to bypass protections put in place in 1984 to keep agricultural land from being turned into urban space.

He’ll reveal ballot language that will provide the most detailed look yet of the community envisioned by he and his billionaire backers, like philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. If the group can secure 13,000 signatures from Solano County voters, the measure will go before voters this November.

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 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.

Created in 2017, California Forever has purchased more than 78 square miles (202 square kilometers) of farmland in Solano County. The plan calls for $400 million to help Solano County residents buy homes in the proposed community.

Habitats, Land UseCalifornia Forever, Delta

Op-Ed: New priorities needed for California’s next drought

March 23, 2021

Darius Waiters and Brandon Dawson, CALMATTERS

As California faces another dry year, the state will have to decide whether to allow the violation of water quality standards in the Delta.

A series of key decisions await Gov. Gavin Newsom as the state heads back into a potential drought.

So this seems like the right moment to review what happened last time: Water was prioritized for big agriculture at the expense of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, endangered species and California communities. The State Water Board, in a review of the drought of 2014-15, found operations “not sustainable.”

We hope Newsom will prevent a repeat of that disaster by setting new priorities for a prolonged drought: Protecting the human right to water for drinking and sanitation, protecting public health for those who live adjacent to our rivers, and protecting endangered species.

Sadly, the operation plans for the State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project are starting to look like a repeat of 2014 and 2015. The projects plan to deliver 5 million acre-feet of water – 1 million from the SWP and 4 million from the CVP – from the Delta largely to corporate agribusinesses, regardless of the impacts to the Delta, people, fish and wildlife.

We are now hearing that the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation may petition the State Water Resources Control Board to waive water quality standards in the Delta again, as they did in 2014 and 2015.

Sustainable Living, Water, WildlifeDelta, drought, water access, water regulation, water supply