California Forever presses governor, Legislature to fast track deal
Supporters of an initial plan to create a megacity in Solano County are pressuring Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature to fast-track development via legislation, claiming failure to move quickly would cause California to lose a major shipyard employer and hundreds of thousands of jobs to Texas.
A coalition of labor unions and pro-development groups supporting California Forever wrote to Newsom, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President pro Tem Monique Limon earlier this week.
California Forever began in 2017 after San Francisco venture capitalist Michael Moritz and former Goldman Sachs trader Jan Sramek began courting other tech executives to invest in Flannery Associates, a company that began buying up thousands of acres of farmland in a Bay Area exurb to initially build a dense, walkable community. Supporters included venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen, LinkedIn founder Reed Hoffman and Laurene Powell Jobs, the Apple founder’s widow.
The backers said in their letter they want a deal that would allow Texas defense company Saronic Technologies to build a shipyard, and expedite it under the California Environmental Quality Act, which the Legislature overhauled parts of last year to ease building hurdles.
Saronic, which makes autonomous underwater vessels, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The plan has morphed in the decade since its inception amid local opposition, and in 2024 proponents yanked a related ballot measure after opting to try and work with local regulators.
Opponents have criticized the project as the brainchild of secretive billionaires who bought up land via a shell company and tried to influence the state for support by hiring lobbyists close to the governor.
A source close to the negotiations said Newsom has been supportive.
“He wants this. He’d like to go out of office with thousands of new high-wage jobs for California,” said the source, who was unauthorized to speak publicly.
Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos said the governor “has been clear that our state needs more housing and opportunities to achieve the California Dream.” She pointed to his signing the law overhauling CEQA last year and support for a November bond measure that could generate billions for rental housing and homeownership programs and housing for veterans.
“We seek legislation to build on California’s long-established framework of streamlining legislation that enables major projects of statewide significance to move quickly while preserving local control and environmental safeguards,” read the letter, which was signed by leaders of the California Alliance for Jobs, the State Building & Construction Trades Council, YIMBY, the California Conference of Carpenters, the California State Council of Laborers, the Abundance Network, Solano Forward, and others.
Supporters argue that if the Legislature ends its session without a deal in place, California would lose billions of dollars in investments and potentially thousands of jobs as the Port of Brownsville offered a $211 million tax break to Saronic last week.
Joshua Arce, the executive director of California Alliance For Jobs, said the project would guarantee jobs and housing at a time when affordability is top of mind for lawmakers.
Veteran Senate leaders Darrell Steinberg and Bob Hertzberg began advising California Forever earlier this year, as first reported by CalMatters and the San Francisco Chronicle, to help the project gain support in the statehouse after previous proposals foundered due to local opposition and the group yanked a 2024 ballot measure.
Steinberg said the project would link the number of jobs with housing, and that local government would still have oversight.
“Nothing changes local control,” he said. “It’s not like a free card to be able to annex a bunch of land into a city.”
