Building Utopia: California Billionaires Reveal Blueprint For City Of The Future

What would you do if you had a billion dollars?

Build a new city from scratch, says one cohort of California billionaires.

A group of Silicon Valley elite have been buying up land in Solano County between San Francisco and Sacramento with the dream of building a brand new city.

The idea began with Jan Sramek, 36, a former Goldman Sachs trader who moved to the Bay Area about a decade ago. Sramek “fell in love” with Solano County after going on fishing trips there, and he and his wife recently bought a home in the area where they plan to raise their toddler and new baby on the way.

In the last few years, Sramek’s unassuming company Flannery Associates has spent more than $800 million buying up farms and undeveloped land with the idea of building a new city.

Credit: California Forever

His investors are some of the richest people in Silicon Valley.

The first investment came from Patrick Collison, the Irish chief executive of Stripe, a payments company. Another investment came from the king of venture capital Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz. Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman also invested.

The group went about their plan quite secretively until late last month, when The New York Times revealed the investors’ intentions.

Days after the Times shed light on who was behind the project, Sramek’s company debuted a website called “California Forever” explaining the plan for the new city.

“To date, our company has been quiet about our activities,” the website reads. “This has, understandably, created interest, concern, and speculation. Now that we’re no longer limited by confidentiality, we are eager to begin a conversation about the future of Solano County a conversation with all of you.”

The goal, according to the website, is a “new community that attracts new employers, creates good paying local jobs, builds homes in walkable neighborhoods.”

The company is now making the rounds among voters and local politicians, trying to get them on board with the plan.

Originally, the wealthy investor group planned to buy up only about 10,000 acres, but since 2018 their sprawling land grab has gobbled up more than 50,000 acres or 78 square miles in Solano County, an area almost twice as big as San Francisco.

RIO VISTA, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 29: In an aerial view, windmills are seen near parcels of land that were recently purchased on August 29, 2023 near Rio Vista, California. Silicon Valley investors Michael Moritz, Reid Hoffman, Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon are backing a company called Flannery Associates that has been buying large parcels of land adjacent to Travis Air Force base approximately 60 miles northeast of San Francisco. Flannery Associates has spent more than $800 million to secure thousands of acres of farmland, often paying over the market rate. The company hopes to convert the rural agricultural land into a community with housing and clean energy infrastructure for tens of thousands of residents. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Sramek’s company was more aggressive than simply buying up land too.

In the spring, Flannery made residents bristle when it sued several landowners, accusing them of conspiring to inflate prices. The lawsuit attracted public attention and raised eyebrows about the company’s land buying spree.

Solano County is also home to Travis Air Force Base, and elected officials were alarmed to see the surrounding land being bought up. The land grab even prompted national security concerns that drew an investigation from the FBI and Treasury Department. Both local and federal officials are still skeptical, and some are exasperated.

“The FBI, the Department of Treasury, everyone has been doing work trying to figure out who these people are,” Representative Mike Thompson (D-CA), who represents a large part of Solano County, said last week after meeting with Sramek.

“Their secrecy has caused a lot of problems, a lot of time, and a lot of expense,” Thompson said.

The company has assured that the vast majority of its funding, 97%, comes from American investors, and only the other 3% are investors in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Credit: California Forever

Another California Democrat, Representative John Garamendi, also met with Sramek recently.

“It was a continuation of my disappointment,” Garamendi said. “It’s very, very clear that they do not have a plan for the 55,000 acres.”

The mayor of one small city in Solano County said she thinks the investors may simply want “to create a city for the elite.”

“Economic blight is everywhere. So why do you need to spend upwards of a billion dollars to create a brand new city when you have all these other things that can be achieved throughout the Bay Area?” said Mayor Princess Washington of Suisun City.

In order to move forward with their grand plans for a new city, investors must win over voters in Solano County. Since the land has been protected from urban sprawl since 1984, voters would have to approve a ballot initiative to allow the land to be rezoned for a city rather than agriculture.

The investors said their plan for a new utopian city could take decades.

Given the massive nature of the project and the skepticism from locals, they have a long road ahead.

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‘You Suck’: Eco-Protesters Hold Up US Open Match, Glue Feet To The Floor

Three environmental protesters, including one who glued his bare feet to the floor, held up a semi-final match at the US Open on Thursday night for roughly an hour as they yelled “end fossil fuels.”

The two men and one woman wore shirts emblazoned “end fossil fuels” and the logo of the extremist “Extinction Rebellion” group as they chanted during the second set of the match between American Coco Gauff, 19, and Karolína Muchová, 27, from the Czech Republic. Gauff had won the first set and was leading in the second 1-0 when play was halted; she ultimately won the match win 6-4, 7-5.

“We are not trying to harm the athletes in any way,” one of the protesters claimed later. “We have nothing against the sport, but we are really trying to draw attention to an issue here that there will be no tennis left for anybody in the world to enjoy.”

Gauff, frustrated by the protesters, asked officials why they were “negotiating” with them, snapping it was like it was a “hostage situation.” Brad Gilbert, her coach,  shouted to the umpire “This is a joke,” according to the Daily Mail. The crowd booed the protesters, and yelled at them as they were taken away by the New York Police Department, “You suck!” and “F*** you!” The crowd cheered the NYPD when they arrived.

“It was a bit challenging, because, you know, it’s not like a typical delay,” Gauff said after the match. “So we didn’t know how long it was going to take. We were talking to the supervisor and security. You know, they could say it could be as quick as five minutes or as long as an hour. It was tough to figure out if we stay warm or conserve energy. … But, you know, it’s life. It happens. So I just try my best to keep the momentum that I had going from winning the first set and the first game.”

“I always speak about preaching about what you feel and what you believe in,” Gauff continued. “It was done in a peaceful way, so I can’t get too mad at it. Obviously I don’t want it to happen when I’m winning, up 6-4, 1-0, and I wanted the momentum to keep going. But hey, if that’s what they felt they needed to do to get their voices heard, I can’t really get upset at it.”

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“I just wanted to get off the court and then keep myself little warmed up and not just to stand there,” Muchová commented.

“I had a feeling it was going to happen this tournament,” Gauff concluded. “It happened in the French Open, it happened in Wimbledon. So, you know, following the trend, it was definitely going to happen here. I just was hoping it wasn’t in my match, and honestly I thought we made it through. … But it is what it is. I think that, you know, the moments like this, yeah, are history-defining moments. Like I said, I prefer it not to happen in my match, but I wasn’t pissed at the protesters. I know the stadium was because it just interrupted entertainment.”

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