The Sierra Club said it will work against a plan by the investment firm California Forever to build a new city in the southeastern area of Solano County.
The national environmental organization that has local chapters launched a coalition during a news conference Tuesday in Fairfield called Solano Together to organize stakeholders and galvanize the community against the plan, which was years in the making but only just revealed in August.
The investment firm has bought more than 55,000 acres of farmland since 2018, much of it from family farmers, through its subsidiary Flannery Associates LLC. The company plans to put a ballot measure before voters next November asking them to alter the county’s general plan, which limits development outside of existing cities. The Sierra Club will oppose the measure, which has not been finalized or made public.
“We think this is a very critical issue, not only for Solano County, but for the entire Bay Area, since we are one of the largest remaining agricultural areas of the Bay Area,” said Joe Feller, a member of the Sierra Club’s Redwood Chapter.
Princess Washington, mayor pro tem of Suisun City and chair of Sierra Club’s Solano Group, called the company’s idea to build a city on the land it has acquired neocolonialism, retro-manifest destiny, and criticized what she called clandestine intrigue. She said the company’s plan would “leapfrog” urban growth into agriculture areas that was meant to be confined to existing cities under the county’s orderly growth initiative defined in its general plan, which was approved by voters in 2008.
Short on specifics
The company said in a statement from CEO and founder Jan Sramek that the Sierra Club had announced its opposition without knowing the details of the company’s plan.
“With respect to these opponents, who made up their minds before ever seeing details of the project, they are entitled to their own opinions — but not their own ‘facts.’ By giving voters the final say, this project explicitly adheres to the Orderly Growth Initiative, by asking Solano voters whether they want to turn an area with the least productive and least ecologically valuable soils in all of Solano County into a new economic engine for the county,” Sramek said.
Fairfield Mayor Catherine Moy criticized the company’s secretiveness, which it attributed to avoiding land speculation, and its purchasing land near Travis Air Force Base.
“Solano voters [will be asked] whether they want to turn an area with the least productive and least ecologically valuable soils in all of Solano County into a new economic engine for the county.” Jan Sramek, California Forever
Washington said the land bought up by the company would fundamentally alter the county’s balance of land use.
“The principal idea of Solano County’s orderly growth policy is to build a high quality of life for our residents,” Washington said.
“This is defined as a healthy mix of urban and rural amenities. While we have seven cities with heavy development, nearby we have access to farm-fresh produce, wine, and public open places for the enjoyment of nature. Urban development often destroys this balance by building its sprawling on agricultural land,” she said.
Worst soils in the county
Sramek said in his statement that the land the company is proposing to develop is pasture land that has received low scores under the county’s Habitat Conservation Plan.
“The land between Fairfield/Suisun City and Rio Vista that we are proposing the project on has both the worst agricultural soils in Solano County, which is why the area is used for pasture land rather than prime farmland, and some of the least ecologically valuable land in the entire county,” Sramek said.
California Forever representatives are holding a series of six town halls in the coming weeks to hear directly from the public. The first meeting was held Wednesday in Vallejo at the Vallejo Naval Historical Museum. The next meeting is scheduled Dec. 5 in Rio Vista, from 5 to 7 p.m., at Legion Hall at the Memorial Veterans Building.
More information on the company’s upcoming town halls, including how to submit questions, can be found on the California Forever website.