Our proposal is for a walkable,
medium density, mixed-use community, California forever pushing forward with its
plan for a new city in Solano County,
the group announcing the details of the proposal Wednesday as
it submits the initiative for the November ballot.
New rendering show what the community would look like,
including residential neighborhoods, A bustling downtown,
and open green spaces. California Forever founder and CEO Jan
Schramk tells me.
After months of town hall meetings with community members,
his team came up with a list of 10 guarantees
to address their concerns.
To give Solano County an unprecedented set of guarantees about
how this is going to look what it's going to
do for the county,
The guarantees include $400 million in down payment assistance,
$70 million in scholarship grants,
and $30 million in habitat conservation.
There's also a jobs guarantee.
Our project must support the creation of at least 15,000
jobs that pay at least 125%
of the county average weekly wage by the time we
hit 50,000 residents.
If not, we can't grow beyond that.
But some lawmakers are still skeptical about the plan for
this area,
saying the proposal is just too vague.
The reality is that they showed us.
Their concept?
There are no real plans.
Democratic Congressman John Garamendi strongly opposes the plan.
He says he's concerned about traffic patterns and water use,
and he's especially worried that despite California Forever's messaging,
taxpayers are going to have to foot the bill in
the end.
This is simply a pipe dream.
The only way this is going to happen is if
everybody else pays for it,
but they say they'll pay their fair share.
Which means everybody else will pay for most of it.
Solano County residents are mixed on the issue.
Some say a new city will bring economic development that
will bring more synergy to us because people will say,
oh, hey, let's stop here.
You know, we they might have something that we don't
have.
But others, such as Kathleen Thwartfall,
who says she wasn't letting to Wednesday's event or worried
about the impacts of development.
I am concerned about the agricultural community.
I'm concerned about the the businesses in town and in
the county and beyond that rely on agriculture.
It'll be up to those voters to decide what happens
next.
Reporting from Solano County Orco Mana KCRA 3 News.
There have also been concerns about how close the new
city would be to Travis.
Air Force Base. California Forever says they will create more
of a buffer zone and will provide affordable housing and
job opportunities to military family.