Billionaires lobby Sacramento to bypass environmental rules for new utopian city

Tech billionaires behind California Forever are attempting an end run around years of local resistance by asking Sacramento to slash environmental reviews and potentially sidestep county voter restrictions in a bid to force through their planned utopian city.

The billionaire-backed development group is lobbying Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers to fast-track approvals for a massive shipyard and manufacturing hub that it says would kick-start the long-stalled project and help lure a major defense contractor before it chooses Texas instead, according to CalMatters.

At the center of the push is a package of proposed legislative changes that would allow California Forever to rely on an 18-year-old environmental impact report for the shipyard, limit legal challenges to 270 days, and, if necessary, allow neighboring Suisun City to annex the land if local governments cannot move quickly enough.

The company has enlisted former California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg — two Democratic architects of California’s environmental laws — to help make its case in Sacramento.

Supporters argue the legislation is necessary to secure a deal with defense company Saronic Technologies, which builds autonomous vessels for national security and is deciding between California and Texas for its next manufacturing facility.

In a letter sent to Newsom and legislative leaders this week, supporters warned that without legislative approval California could lose billions of dollars in investment and tens of thousands of jobs this summer to Texas and other states.

California Forever has spent nearly a decade trying to transform farmland in Solano County into a new city. Originally marketed as a walkable community featuring cottages, bike lanes and even a water park, the vision has since expanded to include a major shipyard and manufacturing center that supporters say could eventually generate an estimated 500,000 jobs across the state.

Critics, however, say the latest strategy is less about economic development than finding a way around years of organized local opposition.

State Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, whose district includes the project, argued a development of this size deserves the full environmental review process, warning that converting thousands of acres of farmland into factories could have major consequences for surrounding communities and ecosystems.

Others accuse California Forever of trying to accomplish behind closed doors what it could not win publicly.

Since 2018, the group’s subsidiary Flannery Associates quietly purchased roughly 62,000 acres of farmland while refusing to identify its financial backers. Some farmers later alleged they were pressured into selling.

The mystery surrounding the project ended in 2023, when its investors were revealed to include several wealthy Silicon Valley venture capitalists, including the founders of LinkedIn and Netscape, led by former Goldman Sachs trader and real estate developer Jan Sramek.

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also has investments in both California Forever and Saronic, the defense company considering California for its next factory.

California Forever had originally planned to ask Solano County voters to approve its East Solano Plan, which proposed re-zoning 17,500 acres of agricultural land for a city of about 400,000 residents.

But the company withdrew the proposal in 2024 after facing strong grassroots opposition, unfavorable polling and a county review that identified major shortcomings in the plan.

Sramek later acknowledged the company likely moved too quickly and said the proposal would return to voters in 2026.

Cabaldon argued that Saronic will decide where to place its shipyard based on “defense needs of the United States of America” instead of state incentives.

“We have to negotiate with our eyes open.”

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