Billionaire-Backed Group California Forever Unveils Master Plan for ‘Next Great American City’

An ambitious real estate consortium known as California Forever has unveiled its detailed 40-year master plan to build a vast new community from scratch on former farmland northeast of San Francisco.

California Forever CEO Jan Sramek touted the plan as a key step in creating "the next great American city," which the group envisions as the eventual home of 400,000 people living in "affordable homes in safe, walkable neighborhoods."

The plan filed on Tuesday reveals that California Forever now plans to build the master-planned community as an extension of nearby Suisun City, a community of 30,000 that stands to dramatically expand its tax base by annexing the new development.

That strategy pivot comes more than a year after California Forever pulled the plug on a ballot initiative to create a new city from scratch, after facing skepticism from voters in surrounding Solano County.

Despite financial backing from Silicon Valley elites including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, tech investor Marc Andreessen, and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, California Forever initially ruffled feathers by quietly purchasing huge tracts of land in the area.

The secretive land purchases of more than 50,000 acres, made under the name Flannery Associates, initially drew concern due to their proximity to Travis Air Force Base, leading to speculation of a foreign plot.

However, in 2023 the group announced its intention to build a massive new master-planned community, saying the land acquisitions had been conducted stealthily to prevent speculators from driving up land prices in the area.

The new site plan revealed this week includes an expanded security zone around Travis AFB, and military leaders have signed off on the development, saying it would not harm base security or operations.

Under the plan, Suisun City would expand eastward with the annexation of 22,873 acres of unincorporated Solano County land, including the 5,700-acre security buffer zone near the base.

The plans call for a dense community of walkable neighborhoods, with an entertainment district, mixed-use commercial districts, and a new shipyard and high-tech industrial zone to create jobs.

The plan also includes a requirement that at least 4,000 acres, or more than 20% of the proposed city, be used for parks, trails, urban ecological habitat, community gardens, and other types of open space.

Sramek, the 38-year-old former Goldman Sachs trader who masterminded the plan, says the new community will be "the most walkable community in America," combining American street grids, the superblocks of Barcelona and Tokyo, and Dutch alleyways known as "woonerfs."

"Like California’s fusion cuisine, we drew inspiration from the best designs from across the world to create something delightful," Sramek said in a post on X.

Sramek said the community would be designed to put homeownership within reach for residents, utilizing "a small parcel fabric where lots of people co-create a real city."

"We’re prioritizing homeownership and family-sized units," wrote Sramek. "We’ve designed for missing middle housing types where families can purchase homes."

"Missing middle" housing refers to small multi-unit or attached housing such as duplexes and townhomes, considered the middle ground between detached homes and apartment buildings, and "missing" because they are rarely built.

Renderings of the new community released with the new plan show an abundance of townhomes and accessory dwelling units of the kind championed by pro-housing advocates, who often favor denser housing as a solution to the housing shortage crisis, which is especially severe in California.

However, Sramek noted that the renderings don't reflect the architectural design details for the community, and are merely intended to show the planned layout of the community.

"The renderings are illustrative, and a pattern book is coming later," he wrote. "As with urban design, our goal is to combine the best of the old and the new, so stay tuned."

In a video statement, Suisun City Manager Bret Prebula said the city had deemed California Forever's site plan application complete and received the filing, which is now available on the city website.

"Really appreciate the work that California Forever has done to this point," said Prebula. "They've really listened, and we expect this continued dialog and negotiation as the project evolves, but, so far, very, very happy with the work product."

The plan will now move into the review phase, with the drafting of a comprehensive environmental impact review report and subsequent public comment.