This Editorial Board has been intrigued by high-powered Bay Area investors’ proposal to build an entirely new city on ranchland in Solano County between San Francisco and Sacramento. Although far from our circulation area, “California Forever” could have offered a statewide model for building new housing — the latest take on the kind of master planning found throughout Orange County.
The project also offered a unique opportunity to rethink how the state provides municipal services by perhaps experimenting with privatization. Alas, the developers recently and unexpectedly pulled a countywide initiative from the November ballot that would have rezoned 20,000 acres to allow the development. They did so after waging a costly campaign.
The project isn’t dead. The group said it will now go through the normal zoning process with the county — and come back to voters in two years. Poor polling and a critical county report questioning funding sources for infrastructure likely forced the pullback. California Forever also drew criticism for a heavy-handed approach (e.g., buying land secretively and suing local ranchers) that might have played better in cutthroat Silicon Valley than a neighborly rural area.
Still, California Forever remains a worthy idea. If California hopes to address its housing-affordability crisis, the state needs private developers to build all types of housing. Yes, much of it needs to go in undeveloped areas. Given the ongoing failures of many California municipal governments, we’d love to see a project that experiments with better and more cost-effective ways to provide basic services.
We were disappointed at opposition from local elected officials, some of whom offered exaggerated NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) concerns about billionaire investors running a dystopian city. The project also spotlighted the inconsistency of YIMBYs (Yes In My Back Yarders), who should have eagerly embraced a plan to build housing in walkable communities. Some backed it, but others complained it would promote “sprawl.”
We’ll chalk up this failed effort as a dry run and hope it comes back again. It’s too bad, however, that political problems once again held up needed development.