Tech Billionaires Plans for a New City in California May Be Dead

Is the California Forever project dead yet? If not, it’s been seriously wounded.

Last year, it was announced that a company backed by Bay Area billionaires had spent $800 million buying up 60,000 acres of Solano County farmland and was attempting to convert it into a brand-new city. After lobbying local communities and promising them the moon, the project officially qualified as a ballot initiative, which would have allowed residents to vote to approve the project come November. On Monday, however, the backers of the project formally withdrew the ballot initiative.

The withdrawal took place only days after the Solano County government released a damning impact report claiming the project would put a huge financial burden on local taxpayers, would lead to a surge in local traffic, and might not even be “financially feasible” in the long run. The government’s report, produced by the county’s Board of Supervisors, estimated that taxpayers could be saddled with $6.4 billion during the project’s initial phase of development and, eventually, would have to pay out as much as $50 billion before the city was ultimately completed.

California Forever has now updated its website to clarify that the ballot initiative has been withdrawn and that developers will pursue an alternate course of action to bring it to fruition.

The project’s backers wanted to skirt some traditional requirements and attempted to have it legally approved by voters before a full environmental impact report or development agreement could be established. On its site, the project now includes a “joint statement” from itself and Mitch Mashburn, Chair of the Board of Solano County Supervisors, which admits that this decision “was a mistake” that “politicized the entire project, made it difficult for us and our staff to work with them, and forced everyone in our community to take sides.”

Numerous other mistakes seem to have been made along the way. Indeed, the county’s impact report fixates on the serious budgetary shortfalls that the county would have to overcome if the project ever became a reality. Essentially, the development, as it’s currently conceptualized, is missing a bunch of money, and it’s unclear where the money would come from. Hypothetically, the county could have created what is known as a Community Facilities District (CFD), which is a special kind of tax district that could generate more revenue by taxing homeowners on their property holdings to fund government services. But that would not have ultimately solved the massive budgetary issues that would have driven up deficits by leaps and bounds, the report claims.

The report notes that the plan would have also flooded local communities with additional traffic. “Freeway and local road segments are projected to experience severe congestion,” it states.

Other concerns mentioned in the report include developers’ lack of transparency or clarity with the local communities that would be most impacted by the project. Local city managers have expressed concerns that detailed information about “technical aspects [of the project] like water supply, infrastructure, and environmental mitigation” are effectively missing, the report notes.

“Overall, the project’s financial feasibility is doubtful due to high infrastructure and public service costs, leading to substantial annual deficits without clear revenue sources,” the report concludes. Local city leaders have expressed a “skeptical view of the proposed Initiative, citing insufficient information, potential negative impacts on traffic, water resources, the environment, and existing communities,” the report adds.

Gizmodo reached out to California Forever for comment and will update this story if it responds.