(NewsWorthy.news) – California Forever, a group of Silicon Valley-backed billionaires, has seen its plan for a new city clear its first hurdle after it managed to secure enough signatures to present the proposal to local voters in November. The planned eco-friendly community would be situated in the prairie northeast of the San Francisco Bay. The proposal now qualifies for the ballot after the Solano County Registrar of Voters certified that it had received enough signatures.
The planned green city would include enough homes to house up to 400,000 residents. It would also include parks, cycling lanes and a sports center. Energy would be produced at a giant solar farm on what is currently pastureland. The proposal is led by Jan Sramek, a former trader for Goldman Sachs, and is backed by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Stripe founders John and Patrick Collison, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.
Sramek referred to the proposal that would go to Solano County voters as a “referendum” on what residents would like the future of California to be. The entrepreneur described the state as an “oasis for the rich”, recalling the “once great place” built public works, infrastructure and bridges in the past.
Commenting on the dire lack of affordable housing, Sramek stated that the planned new city would offer a way out of a “defeatist” situation of building nothing and arguing about everything. The signatures collected by the group easily exceeded the 13,000 required to qualify for the ballot. The company will ask voters to approve a development spanning 27 square miles of currently agricultural land.
California Forever’s campaigning methods have been controversial, provoking outrage among many locals. The company discretely purchased $800 million in agricultural land in the county, and sued farmers who refused to sell their land. Conservation groups also oppose the plans, highlighting the broader environmental impact of some supposedly eco-friendly developments.
The Solano Land Trust, which is tasked with conserving open lands, said the huge development would have a considerable impact on air quality, water resources, farmland and the land’s ecosystem. Plans have been branded a speculative money grab by some local and federal officials.
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