SOLANO CO., 3/21/26 — The two men stood near a rickety barbed wire fence by state Highway 12 between Suisun City and Rio Vista in Solano County, looking east over a vast tract of gently rolling rangeland.
In the summer, this sprawling property will be sere and brown. But now, freshened by heavy winter rains, it is intensely green. Wetlands dot the landscape, some supporting Canada geese and mallard ducks dabbling in the water. Northern harriers and red-tailed hawks cruise overhead, seeking mice and voles in the grasses and emerging wildflowers below.
Both men admired the view. But Jim DeKloe, a biology professor at Solano Community College, and John Harter, the owner of Waterfront Comics in Suisun City, have different visions for the property.
To DeKloe, the land is fine just as it is: a spectacular open space burgeoning with wildlife and supporting rare ecosystems such as vernal pools and native grasslands. Harter, on the other hand, shares the dream of Flannery Associates, a group of wealthy investors led by Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader. Flannery — and Harter — want to see this 100-square-mile parcel developed. They hope to see a new city rising here, one that will ultimately support 400,000 residents at full build-out.
The project is called California Forever, and for three years it has pitted the residents of Solano County against each other. What started off as an acrimonious flame war between supporters and detractors has now settled into a grinding battle of attrition.
Proponents see Flannery as the county’s best chance to save itself from a cascade of failing businesses and spiking unemployment. Opponents decry California Forever as a cynical move by fabulously wealthy “tech bros” to make a massive killing in real estate development. If the project goes forward, it won’t just affect Solano County: a new city the size of Oakland will have a major impact on the economy and environment of all of Northern California.
By most reliable accounts, opponents currently outnumber supporters. Much of that has to do with the way Flannery has conducted itself to date. For years, the investor group secretly bought up farmland in its target area, spurring conspiracies that Chinese operatives were purchasing the land so they could monitor activities at Travis Air Force Base, which is adjacent to the planned development.
Flannery also brought a $510 million antitrust suit against a group of ranchers who were hesitant to sell — though the defendants, multi-generational owners of the land who all knew each other well, characterized their “conspiracy” as mere conversation over their mutual dilemma.
Once news of the project broke, Flannery tried to gain approval for it through a ballot initiative that would have exempted it from a county ordinance proscribing development of agricultural land. But when polling made it clear the measure would fail, Flannery abandoned the idea and pursued an alternative strategy: getting Suisun City to annex the property. An expanded Suisun City — albeit one bifurcated by Travis Air Force Base — would fulfill the investment group’s goal.
Which is fine with Harter.
‘Our town is drying up’
“I’ve lived here all my life,” Harter said during an interview in his comic book shop. “My grandparents bought this building in 1942, and my store has been here 23 years. Every day I open, I wonder if anyone will come in. Our town is drying up — there’s no foot traffic.”
Suisun City officials have tried to address the city’s economic malaise for decades, securing several million dollars in redevelopment funds since the 1980s. And the city shows it, with infrastructure upgrades along Suisun Slough, an attractive waterway that bisects downtown. But Harter is right — the city center is largely empty of people.
“We’ve been struggling with employment issues for a long time, and lately it’s gone from bad to disastrous,” he said. “In the last couple of months, there have been huge layoffs at our major businesses — the Budweiser plant in Fairfield, the Jelly Belly candy factory in Fairfield, the dry docks at Mare Island in Vallejo, at a modular home manufacturer on Mare Island, and at the Valero Refinery in Benicia. With those kinds of hits, a few million dollars isn’t going to make a difference. You need an investment the size of California Forever to really turn things around.”
Indeed, Flannery bills the new community as a “walkable” city that will provide ample jobs for county residents through ongoing construction, a manufacturing “foundry” and a shipyard. Moreover, his group says, projects on the scale of the Suisun City expansion are needed to mitigate California’s housing crisis — infill development alone is inadequate.
Responding to emailed questions, a California Forever spokesperson who declined to be identified noted the California Department of Housing and Community Development maintains that the state needs 2.5 million new units for the period covering 2023 through 2031.
“California is building fewer units than permitted, and many of those are [small addition units to existing homes] that [will] serve as guest houses or offices,” the spokesperson wrote. “Infill development alone [can’t] close that gap. California needs both infill and new, master-planned walkable communities and cities built at scale.”
But DeKloe scoffs at Flannery’s claims, noting the company’s “specific plan” for the new community is vague on essential costs and impacts, including the source of funding for needed expansion of Highway 12, access to water, and the noise from Travis AFB’s massive military jets flying constant training missions.
“And that’s just for starters,” DeKloe says. “They’re currently calling for doubling the size of Highway 12 as it goes through Suisun City. But the increase in traffic from the expanded city will be 15-fold. No matter how you cut it, you’re still going to have a massive increase in traffic that will gridlock the system. And of course, there’s also the issue of losing critical open space that was preserved in the 1980s following a similar aborted attempt to build a ‘sustainable’ new city.”
City manager: Opposition overblown
DeKloe said he’s amused that Flannery casts the project in quasi-philanthropic terms.
“It’s basic real estate speculation,” he said. “For the investors, the payoff will be the day when their plan is approved and the property rezoned, increasing the value of the land from $15,000 an acre to more than $300,000 an acre. I think that’s when they take their profits and the IPO talk begins.”
But Bret Prebula, city manager for Suisun City and a proponent of the project, doesn’t agree.
“Yes, it would be legal, and yes, I’ve seen it happen with smaller developments, where the investors get their entitlements and then they sell off,” Prebula said. “But I don’t see that happening here. The development agreement required to obtain entitlement will be significant, and I doubt anyone would want to assume that in a buyout situation. The math plays more to a buy and hold strategy.”
Moreover, Prebula says, the opposition to the project is overblown. He cited a failed attempt to recall the generally California Forever-friendly City Council in Suisun City as evidence and said a January poll that showed widespread opposition to the plan was skewed.
The poll, conducted by the research firm FM3, surveyed 400 Suisun City voters and determined that 58% were opposed to expanding the city, with 19% in support and 23% undecided.
“I’ve been involved in polling for various tax measures, and I’ve seen many polls way off standard deviation errors,” Prebula said. “I’m in Suisun City’s streets every day, and what I’m finding is that about 20% of the people hate it, 20% love it, and 60% are undecided.”
Prebula’s claims about a large “undecided” cohort aside, supporters and opponents have broken up into predictable camps. Business interests clearly support Flannery, as does organized labor.
“I’ve been in the trades since 1989, and for most of that time I’ve had to work outside of Solano County,” said Steve McCall, a union pipefitter and a representative of the Napa-Solano Building and Construction Trades Council. “Now, with so many industries leaving, it’s only gotten worse. This project would support skilled labor jobs in-county over an extended time scale and provide much-needed local housing. It comes down to choices — would you rather work locally in a growing community or continue long commutes in ever-worsening traffic on deteriorating roadways?”
It comes down to trust
Opponents include environmentalists and locals who simply like the county as it is. For them, the downsides of a Suisun City expansion far outweigh the benefits.
“Despite the promises, the project will be as reliant on cars as any other exurban development,” said Elizabeth Reid-Wainscoat, a spokesperson for the Center for Biological Diversity.
“There will be significant air quality impacts from both the number of cars and the volatile materials that will be used in the manufacturing center,” said Reid-Wainscoat. “There are also climate change risks — 20% of the land would be in a flood inundation zone, and 10,000 acres are designated as a high fire hazard severity zone. And finally, of course, there’s the destruction of thousands of acres of open space, endangered ecotypes and wildlife habitat.”
In any case, Flannery and Suisun City are moving forward, however ploddingly. As required by the California Environmental Quality Act, a draft environmental impact report is now being prepared, with its release for public comment expected sometime this spring.
Following comments, a final EIR will be prepared, and the City Council will vote whether to greenlight the annexation. If approved, Flannery’s application then goes to the Solano Local Agency Formation Commission, which determines whether Suisun City can provide the necessary services without undue fiscal harm to the county. If this final hurdle is cleared, the expansion theoretically can proceed, pending likely lawsuits from opponents.
Back at Waterfront Comics, DeKloe and Harter continued their spirited but amicable discussion over California Forever, both confirming at one point that the issue comes down to trust.
“I’ve always been inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt,” Harter said, “and there are a lot of positive things in [Flannery’s plan]. All in all, I feel I can trust them.”
DeKloe smiled wryly and shook his head.
“Sorry,” he said. “I don’t.”