Exclusive: California Forever CEO addresses water concerns with East Solano Plan
The company plans to release an impact study and reveal additional plans to source potable water within the next week.
(Photo by California Department of Fish & Wildlife; Public domain image)
The chief executive of a group pushing for a major development in rural Solano County east of Rio Vista says his company has enough water rights to sustain a thriving community should their plans get the green light.
In an interview with Solano NewsNet on Tuesday, California Forever CEO Jan Sramek said the group has significant existing water rights that are used in connection with almond orchards and irrigation pastures in the region, and that the necessary amount of water to sustain its proposed development would be slightly less than its current agricultural use.
“There’s over 23,000 acre feet of water that are used on our properties right now,” Sramek said. “And the majority of that water can legally and physically be used for the new community.”
The rights are associated with more than 60,000 acres of land that California Forever’s subsidiary, Flannery Associates, has acquired over the last few years. The land was purchased with the financial backing of deep-pocketed Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, including Laurene Powell Jobs, the wife of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs; Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen; LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman; Y Combinator partner Daniel Gross; and Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison.
Much of the land is currently zoned for agricultural use, and is subject to a county ordinance that restricts large-scale development without voter approval. California Forever is pushing for a ballot initiative that would override the slow-growth initiative for its project, called the East Solano Plan, which aims to develop around 17,000 acres for residential, business, industrial and recreational use. The company recently submitted more than the necessary 20,000 signatures to qualify for the upcoming November election; county officials are currently working to verify and process those signatures.
Critics of the East Solano Plan have raised concerns over how California Forever will source its water, and whether it has enough rights to sustain its eventual goal of adding 400,000 residents. In February, Sramek told the not-for-profit news outlet CalMatters that California Forever has enough water for its initial period of growth, during which it anticipates adding 50,000 to 100,000 residents.
The water comes from the land Flannery Associates acquired and comes from different sources, including groundwater and the Sacramento River, Sramek said.
On Tuesday, Sramek told Solano NewsNet the group has around 13,000 acre feet of water that can be used for the new community, which is “more than the annual consumption of Vallejo, Dixon, Rio Vista and Suisun City combined.”
It is also more than what California Forever has on hand, according to some sources. Last November, the Greenbelt Alliance said a review of public records put the amount of water rights held by California Forever at 5,330 cubic feet, which was enough to potentially support around 60,000 residents. It was not clear why the records reflected a substantially lower amount of water than the figure cited by Sramek on Tuesday.
There are also concerns over whether water used for agricultural purposes could be relied upon as potable water for residents, businesses and other industries. On Tuesday, Sramek said the majority of its water “can legally and physically used for the new community,” but didn’t offer further specifics.
Legally, California Forever would need to convince the Solano County Water Agency to allow the conversion of water meant for irrigation into water for urban use. They would also need to treat any water that is converted. To date, California Forever has offered few public details about how they intend to treat water if the SCWA approves the conversion, and how they would source additional water needed for the proposed community if it does not.
On Tuesday, Sramek offered a hint at some of the organization’s strategy with respect to providing water in a growing community.
"[Our] existing water rights are sufficient for the next 20 years of build-out, easily," Sramek said. "We will then combine that by bringing in water from outside the county and using a lot of recycled water."
Sramek said California Forever will offer more insight into its water plan within the next week.
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Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct a comment associated with Sramek.