The Interview: California Forever CEO Jan Sramek discusses the East Solano Plan
The leader of an ambitious, large-scale rural development project addresses concerns about housing, water rights, traffic managements and other issues.
Photo: Solano NewsNet publisher Matthew Keys (left) and California Forever CEO Jan Sramek conduct an interview over Zoom on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (Graphic by Solano NewsNet)
Last week, a public relations firm contracted by California Forever reached out to Solano NewsNet with an opportunity to interview the organization’s chief executive officer, Jan Sramek.
The pitch came shortly after California Forever submitted more than 20,000 signatures connected to a petition for a ballot initiative that, if approved by voters, will allow the project’s leaders to move forward with their plans of developing and ultimately establishing a new city in Solano County.
The last time a city in the immediate region was incorporated was 2003, when Rancho Cordova converted from a census-designated place after establishing a local government. Closer to home, the most-recent incorporated city is American Canyon in 1992. In Solano County, a city has not incorporated for more than a century; the last to do so was Fairfield in 1903. Until March, there were no new incorporations anyone in California for more than a decade — which offers some insight into how rarely it occurs.
Sramek and others associated with California Forever fundamentally believe their city will happen. They believe they have all the elements needed to make it work. They certainly have the land: The company through its subsidiary business, Flannery Associates, has spent more than $800 million acquiring land along the Highway 12-Highway 113 corridor between Fairfield and Rio Vista that, for decades, has been used for farming or existed as open space.
The land grab was large, happened fast and was cloaked in secrecy. It raised alarm bells among local and federal elected officials, some of whom strongly (and wrongly) suggested China be a driving force behind the acquisition, which stoked concerns given the land’s proximity to Travis Air Force Base. That criticism has not died down since Flannery Associates revealed itself to be part of California Forever and unveiled their intention to develop through the East Solano Plan.
Today, it is hard to find someone who lives in Solano County who does not have a strong position on the East Solano Plan. The business leaders, elected officials and residents who favor the initiative appear swayed by the promise of an influx in new money that the project could bring to the region over time, as well as pledges from California Forever to improve infrastructure, source their own water, promote green energy and bring high-paying jobs to Solano County. Opponents accuse California Forever of not being fully forthcoming with their intentions from the start, and say the development plans amount to nothing more than a “pipe dream” that, if it proceeds, would do substantially more harm than good. Those critics include environmentalists, long-time residents, local business leaders and some elected officials who believe the project would exacerbate problems with traffic, cost of living, the availability of water and the environment, among other things.
There is certainly a lot to discuss — and that is why Solano NewsNet accepted the opportunity to speak with Sramek. There were no conditions associated with our conversation — we were not asked to provide questions in advance (which we would not have agreed to), and we weren’t prevented from discussing certain topics.
We were offered 30 minutes with Sramek but, due to scheduling issues, the actual discussion was around 20 minutes. We solicited questions from our e-mail subscribers and members of our real-time Facebook group before the interview, and the questions helped inform what we should ask during the conversation. We couldn’t get to all questions within the time alloted, and while we did dive deeper into certain parts of the East Solano Plan, we also had to move on to other topics in order to get a broader sense of California Forever’s ideas and intentions. That said, after the interview concluded, Sramek said he was open to speaking with Solano NewsNet in the future, and we’ll take him up on the opportunity in the coming weeks and months.
What follows is a transcript of our conversation with Sramek, which is lightly edited for flow.
(Image: California Forever)
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
Jan, it’s really good to meet you. I’ve been following the progression of California Forever and the East Solano Plan. I got the door-knocker this week. And I’m familiar with what’s going on, but can you give me the 30,000-foot view of California Forever and the East Solano Plan?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
Yeah, I mean, really, we are trying to bring back the California Dream to Solano County, I mean, California is this place that used to be the place of opportunity and optimism, and we built all of these homes and created all of these jobs. And it was a place that lifted millions of people out of poverty into the middle class. And that's been slipping away. And you hear it in the frustrations of people from all over the state, including out here. And what we are trying to do is a — it's an unprecedented bold plan to invest tens of billions of dollars into Solano County over the next 15 years to bring jobs here, build affordable homes, bring more recreation opportunities, fun things to do and build the largest solar farm in America here.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
When we're saying the largest solar farm in America, how big are we talking?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
We're talking over two gigawatts of output, which will be, by quite some margin, the largest solar farm in America.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
And that would be enough to sustain the population that you anticipate will come to the community, assuming everything goes to plan, as well as provide power back to the grid to support the outlying community, too?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
Yeah, by a big margin. So the new community would actually be a minority user of the power, even a full build out, most of the power would be available for exports to the remaining cities in Solano County, and the region to eco Arts is enough for about one and a half million homes. And so even at full build out, we might have 100,000 homes or something like that. 150,000, maybe. And so most of this power would be for the region, also the new community.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
Step one has been community outreach. How is the community outreach initiative going?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
I think it's going really well, I think that there was, of course, a little skepticism about this in the beginning. But people have come around. And I think now we have over the 70 local businesses that have endorsed the initiative. 20,500 people signed the petition to put this on the ballot, that's 7,000 more than required. We now employ dozens of people from Solano County. And we have several advisory groups — we had one in the fall, we have one for this new sports complex that we just announced.
And I think people have seen that we are really serious about this. I think people were skeptical in the beginning. And maybe it sounded idealistic or Pollyanna-ish, to want California to work again, for working families and to want to build something that's ambitious, but I think people have seen that we are serious we, we have the team, we have the community partnerships, we have the capital to do it. And they are tired of saying no to everything.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
To be fair, there are still a pretty big number of people who are skeptical. You've got some hardliners, and I don't know that you'll ever be able to convince them to your side. You also have people who would probably be on the fence, but are leaning toward California Forever not being something that's favorable to them into their community.
The loudest voices on social media — which you have to take with a grain of salt, because social media is not the barometer of the pulse of any community — but the loudest voices do seem to be in opposition. And there are some common themes that emerged in some of their concerns with water rights, with transportation infrastructure, with public safety and with the environmental.
So, how does California forever address those concerns through the plans that you've unveiled now? And do you have a long term plan to further address those concerns and others as they come up?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think it's really easy to say no to more housing, more renewable energy and more jobs in California, I think we've spent the last 20 years of doing it, and that's why the state is no longer this this place of optimism in America. That's why people are leaving the state for the first time ever. They are going to Texas, to Florida, who do build, and —
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
I'm not sure that, to be fair, that's part of it. It's very expensive to live in California, it's expensive to do business here. It's expensive to live here. How is California Forever going to address those pain points and make it easier for people to live here, make it easier for people to work here?
There are some things that are causing people to leave for other states that are outside the control of a local community. But there are certainly things that you can do to address those pain points and to kind of help soften them. So what are some of the specific things that California Forever can do to keep people here to keep good jobs here to bring new jobs in, and to help people get into affordable housing?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
So I mean, we can definitely — so we can't change everything for now. But I think we can change most of the issues. When, I think — when you look at any of the surveys of why families are living in California, cost of housing is the number one issue always universally is they want to be able to buy a home, and they can't here.
And, so, building tens of thousands of new homes is going to make a huge dent in that by just increasing supply. And also beginning to build starter homes right now you can't buy a new home in Solano County, for less than $600,000, probably.
We're going to have new starter homes — three beds, two bathrooms, walk-up flats, in the new community, in a walkable community, with schools nearby and shops nearby for about $450,000 in today's dollars.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
Those are apartments?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
Those are apartments, but they are the size of homes. I mean, if you look at a standard single family home, they tend to be about 1300, 1400 square feet. These are apartments that are 1200 square feet in size. And there's nowhere that you can buy an apartment right now in Solano County for $150,000 that's nice, big 1200 square feet, three beds, two baths, next to shopping next two jobs in a great school district with schools that your kids can walk to. And so we've definitely seen a ton of people from the county say I would love to buy that as my first home.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
What percentage of homes would be at or below what the market considers to be “affordable rate?”
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
I'm not sure what the market considers to be affordable rate. But we'll definitely have — I mean, we'll build as many apartments of this time, that I just outlined as starter homes, as people want to buy. I mean, this is not a subsidized unit. This is a unit that we can deliver that is not deed restricted, where people are building equity in the home right from the beginning.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
Are there plans to build standalone homes? I think most people with families probably don't want to live in an apartment for 30, 40, 50 years — they actually want a single-family residence. So are there plans to build those, too, and what percentage of the home building will be single-family residences?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
The dominant housing structure in the community will be a row house. It's an attached structure, you have a private backyard, you have a roof terrace, and we will have those will be a substantial part of the housing — probably 30, 40, 50 percent, I would expect — and people can absolutely buy those. And we will have those for sale below the prices that they would need to pay to buy a new home in Fairfield and Vacaville.
(Image: California Forever)
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
So, if you build these homes, presumably, people will come. That's the old saying, right? But with people flocking to a new development, you also have an increase in resource needs, some of which are not currently available along the Highway 113-Highway 12 corridor — things that, presumably, you and other stakeholders will have to build out in order to sustain this growth that you would like to see in this new community.
There are a lot of concerns, especially from some of our readers, about the impact that this is going to have on traffic, water rights, public safety, environmental concerns. And, so, while it seems like there are some concrete plans to build homes, and certainly that's an interesting first step, not much has been discussed about the specifics of how you're going to address those things.
So, maybe just taking those one at a time. Traffic is terrible throughout Solano County. I drive on local roads here all the time. And traffic is going to get worse — not just in a new community but also in neighboring communities as people use local freeways and county roads to get from Point A to Point B, especially if they're commuting to Bay Area jobs.
So how is California Forever going to address the impact of traffic, and what are you doing now to start to address those concerns?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
This project is going to improve and reduce traffic in Solano County, not increase it. If you look at the data, all the traffic is from Solano County residents commuting to the Bay Area or Sacramento for work. We're going to be bringing many more jobs here than residents in the new community, I'm pretty confident that, even in the very first place, we're going to have more jobs and residents.
For every resident of Rio Vista, or like Vacaville or Suisun, or Fairfield or Dixon who has a 10-15 minute commute to the new community, they will no longer be on I-80. And that's going to take an incredible number of cars off I-80.
We are going to need to improve Highway 12, and we have a pretty extraordinary commitment in the initiative, which is to provide — there's an existing plan for widening of Highway 12, there's actually a Caltrans approved plan for turning it into four-lane freeway in either direction, from the crossing with I-80 all the way down to Suisun City. And that can be extended.
The issue has been funding, there's never been enough funding in it. I’ve been told this is ‘No-Man’s-Land,’ where it's enough of a problem for the people, but there was not enough economic activity that could generate the tax revenues to pay for the improvements. And, so, we have a commitment to provide the right of way for the widening, and we have a commitment to provide at least our proportional share of the funding. Caltrans determines what that is. And, then, that money gets layered with state and federal money to actually pay for fixing the highway. So on all fronts, this is going to significantly reduce commuting, commuting and Solano County and make traffic better.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
But, to be clear, you're starting first with homes, right? You're building homes?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
We actually expect that we're gonna have more jobs than homes from Day One. We've announced 12 employers who are interested in coming to Solano County, we are already in discussions with many of them to sign letters of intent. We have signed letters of intent with other employers we’ll be announcing in the future. And employers can come much faster than homes. You can build an office building or a factory for 200 employees much faster than 200 homes. And so I expect we'll have more jobs than homes right in the beginning.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
Okay. But that still presents an issue with traffic, because people have to commute in for those jobs. So there is going to be an impact on traffic in the short term, and maybe these things get figured out in the long term. So, is the view that it's short-term pain for exponentially long-term gain on that issue?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
Not quite. There's actually a lot of capacity on the roads when you go from, because it's all in reverse commute direction. And so when you drive, there is traffic on Highway 12 heading west in the mornings. But if you're trying to drive from Fairfield to the new community at 8 AM, on a Tuesday, there's no traffic, there's lots of capacity, even coming from — if you're going south on I-80, from Fairfield to Vallejo, at 8 AM on a Tuesday, it is full of cars. But if you’re going north at 8 AM, from Vallejo to Fairfield, it's empty. And so this project really rebalances the distributions of jobs in the Bay Area in a fantastic way. And takes advantage of a lot of unused capacity to allow people to commute and reverse commute direction.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
Well, there’s data points, but then there's also real-world experiences. A crash on Highway 12 could block all lanes for the morning, and then you are re-routing traffic on surface streets, whether it's going in one direction or the other, because that's just the nature of Highway 12. And, also, Highway 113. You also have things like fires and floods that can close roads.
So, I don't know — it doesn't sound like this is fully fleshed out just yet. But it does sound like, maybe, California Forever is going to address these issues as they come up, or as it becomes a bit more — like, the plans right now are very broad. They're not narrowly focused, because this is still kind of a work in development. That's why, on these door knockers [which were passed out to residents in Solano County before the interview], there's a lot of broad allocations of funding — except for this last one, which I have a question about — but no real specifics.
There's a lot of data points that suggests that one thing or another might happen, but then when you talk to people who actually live here, they say, there was a crash on Highway 12, and it took me two hours to get to work. Right? It doesn't matter which direction it is. There's going to be a lot of congestion one way or another. So what I'm what I'm getting from this is, yeah, there's going to be short-term pain for long-term gain. Or am I just completely wrong on that?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
No, I mean — I think I disagree with the short term-pain for long-term gain. I think a lot of these issues are still to be worked out in the development agreement, which has to be signed before we proceed construction.
The other part of that is that we are no different than any other project in Solano County. I mean, we are building homes all over Solano County. We're building homes in Vacaville. We're building homes in Dixon. We're building homes in Fairfield. And, right now, virtually none of those developments are bringing any jobs to Solano County. So I think it is — I think it's a little bit of a double standard to say that those developments are fine. But this one which is going to bring jobs, which is going to reduce commuting, is somehow held to a different standard.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
Point taken. On water, where is the water going to come from?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
So, we have a lot more news on water coming up in about a week. And, so, we'll follow up on that. As a preview, we have completed the study of water uses on our properties right now. We do own almond orchards, we do own irrigated pasture, there's over 23,000 acre feet of water that are used on our properties right now. And the majority of that water can legally and physically be used for the new community.
And, so, just by using water rights we already have, we believe that we have about over 13,000 acre feet of water that we can use for the new community. That is more than the annual consumption of Vallejo, Dixon, Rio Vista and Suisun City combined. And, so, those cities between them have almost 200,000 people. And we have more water than that already, just from the existing users on the properties.
We will be publishing more details about this in the next few days. But just the existing water rights are sufficient for the next 20 years, will build out easily. We will then combine that by bringing in water from outside the county and using a lot of recycled water, and details on that are coming soon.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
California Forever has this thing on its website called the “10 Guarantees.” These are commitments that California Forever, is willing to make through the East Solano Plan, if voters approve the ballot initiative in November. There was a CalMatters piece back in February where they spoke with legal experts, and they're saying they're not entirely convinced that these guarantees are legally binding. Are you willing to commit to these guarantees? Even if they're not legally binding? Or with some of this, you know, eventually wind up in court?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
I'm committing to it right now. We've been always very clear that they are legally binding, we actually believe that they are strictly legally binding.
The short answer is that the initiative says that we cannot build without a development agreement. And the initiative says that these initiatives guarantees have to go into the development agreement. So, there's no way for us to build a home without the guarantees being in the development agreement.
We have a much longer and detailed answer in the FAQ on our website that I'll send you that gets into the details. And we will also sign whatever piece of paper the county puts in front of us to make the guarantees legally binding right now. We are not trying to tell one story and do another, we stand by those guarantees, and we go and deliver on them.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
So, the County comes to you tomorrow and says, sign this document. This will make this legally binding based on existing California law. You're putting your signature on that document?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
[Makes signature motion in the air.] As long as all it says is that these are legally binding, and they are the same ones, these are the only initiatives, we will sign it tomorrow. We would love for Solano County to give us a document like that, that could take this off the table and make it clear to everyone that we stand behind our work.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
Why do you think they haven't? It seems like there are some within Solano County that are maybe trying to make your job a little bit more difficult. We had a press release that was sent by the Solano County Registrar of Voters that said they had received information that there were petitioners and signature-gatherers that were using false pretenses to get signatures. Certainly we received those same tips, how substantiated that is remains to be seen. But it does seem like there are some within the county that are maybe making the job a bit more difficult than being liaisons and active — what is the word? — rather than trying to facilitate the process and help it go along in a way that is fair and equitable to all sides? Does that question make sense?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
Yeah, well, I mean, I feel like Solano County and the staff that have been really fair to us throughout the process. I think they've been fairly impartial. I think, on the guarantees, I think they are doing that because we are following basically the same process that any other land use initiative would — which is, you change the zoning and the general plan, and then you have all of these conditions in the development agreement.
I think what's unusual here is that from the beginning, we've said these other guarantees, and we are willing to stand by them. I think some of the opponents have weaponized, some kind of technicality of whether they fully have to be incorporated into the development agreement to claim that they are not legally binding. But it's just it's just not the case. And we believe that the answer we have on the website explains why.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
Which is what?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
Which is that the initiative says you cannot build without a development agreement. And, the initiative also says any development must incorporate these 10 Guarantees. And what that means is, they are binding. It's if you think about the sequence of it, they are binding.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
Do you think that some of the county, local and federal officials, including Congressman Garamendi, and Congressman Thompson have been fair and impartial? I mean, they're clearly critics of the project. Fairfield’s mayor has been critical of the project. Supervisor Mashburn has been critical of the project. Do you believe that their criticism is fair and impartial? Have they reached out to you to try to foster some kind of dialogue and get more information about it? Or do you view them as hard-line opponents?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
We've reached out to all of those people repeatedly. We've met with all of them repeatedly. We've talked about the plan. I expected, we expected, people to be skeptical, but open-minded. I think it's totally fair for someone in September to say, you know, this sounds like a really big idea, I don't know that it's possible, I don't have the plan. I'm skeptical, but I'm gonna keep an open mind, and then I'm going to judge the plan on its merits. And most elected officials in Solano County have done this — by far, most mayors, most city council members, most supervisors,
I think, unfortunately, maybe six or seven elected officials have taken a hard-line position from the beginning, and I do think that's unfair. I think they say that they are for more homes in Solano County, and more affordable homes. They say they are for jobs. They say they are for economic development and renewable energy. And this plan is, by far, the most-credible plan to bring tens of billions of dollars of investment in Solano County. It's an unprecedented investment in Solano County. It would lift the whole area, it would fix the budget issues for so many of the cities.
I think we've demonstrated in the last few weeks that we are able to bring employers, that we are able to bring major entertainment and recreation and training and money for nonprofits. And there's more of that coming. And I think as people look at this, the totality of this package, at some point, you have to ask how can you be against it as an elected official? If you say that you are for homes and for jobs and for clean energy, at some point, you have to admit that this is an excellent plan that people are behind.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
I'm getting the wrap here. So I have one quick question, and one quick follow up, which is: Do you think that you'll win in November, the ballot initiative?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
Yes.
MATTHEW KEYS, Solano NewsNet:
And what happens if you don't? Are you going to try again in two years? Are you going to court?
JAN SRAMEK, California Forever:
We are super focused right now on winning, and we are very confident that we're going to win.
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