By Conor Dougherty
SUISUN City, a town of 30,000 in a neglected corner of the San Francisco Bay Area, is defined by its marshy waterfront and chronic lack of money.
For decades, its local government has swung between insolvency threats and revitalisation plans that fizzle out.
Walking through 19th-century downtown past boarded-up brick buildings and a park where homeless people sleep, it’s a city with good bones that can’t seem to figure out what to become.
Enter Suisun’s latest bid for renewal: a proposal to annex over 9,000ha of agricultural land owned by California Forever, a development project backed by Silicon Valley billionaires.
The plan is to build a city from scratch on yellow hills dotted with sheep and wind turbines.
The deal aims to solve problems for both sides.
California Forever wants to develop unincorporated land in Solano County, which has strict laws limiting building outside established cities. Suisun is broke. Annexing the land would expand the city’s footprint and, potentially, secure a gusher of future tax revenue.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” said Mayor Alma Hernandez.
California Forever’s vision is audacious: a walkable city for up to 400,000 people about an hour north of San Francisco, with housing, a manufacturing centre and a shipbuilding facility along the Sacramento River.
Renderings show three- to five-storey buildings, parks, plazas and farmers markets.
Reaction has been polarised. Boosters say it could revive the middle class and stem the outflow of businesses. Sceptics warn it would destroy farmland and turn Suisun into a civic puppet of tech moguls.
Last October, a community meeting in a local event space grew heated quickly. Shouting erupted despite calls for civility.
“I’m of the opinion that this is a scam,” said Andrew Russo, a retired civil servant, near the front in a white fedora.
“The door is right there,” Suisun’s city manager, Bret Prebula, replied.
“All the people who are young enough to work are interested in hearing about the opportunity,” shouted Alicia Mijares, a union representative and project supporter.
The backstory of California Forever is almost as dramatic as its plan.
In 2017, a mysterious company called Flannery Associates started buying farmland across eastern Solano County, eventually amassing over 28,000ha for about US$950mil.
Its investors were Silicon Valley billionaires including Michael Moritz, Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman, Laurene Powell-Jobs and Stripe founders Patrick and John Collison.
The front was revealed in 2023: the aim was to build an urbanist’s dream from scratch.
California Forever was born, and Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader, began selling the plan to the public.
Locals dubbed it “oligarch city”, while advocacy groups like Solano Together and California4Never organised opposition.
Trust remains a major hurdle. Critics question a group that once pretended to be passive farmland buyers and has taken hardball measures such as suing holdout farmers in a US$510mil antitrust case.
Originally, Sramek emphasised housing to address California’s shortage. Now, the company is highlighting local factories, shifting the narrative to economic opportunity.
Despite vocal opposition, California Forever has become a local power player with Solano offices and employees.
Agreements to use local trade unions on future work have helped win some support.
A central question is whether Suisun is capable of being a real city.
Strapped for cash and overshadowed by nearby Fairfield, officials have long flirted with projects promising salvation: subdivisions, a Walmart Supercentre, cannabis taxes. Each was followed by budget crunches and disappointment.
“This city, honestly, if you really look at its history, it should have not survived up until now,” Hernandez said.
California Forever initially sought a ballot initiative to bypass county restrictions on building on farmland, but poor polling forced it to be shelved.
Later, Prebula explored annexation, now called the Suisun Expansion Plan.
“Suisun is a city that wants to not just talk about jobs and homes, but actually deliver them,” Sramek said.
California Forever is funding consultant reports and environmental studies, with final approval resting with the Local Agency Formation Commission, which decides city borders in Solano County.
For now, the plan is years from reality. But even exploring the idea feels different for Suisun.
“It’s a little city recognising that it has leverage,” Hernandez said. — ©2026 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times
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