SOLANO COUNTY, Calif. — After being turned away in two different meetings, California Forever is now telling ABC10 they’re dropping the idea of using the North Bay Aqueduct altogether.
The change comes after the Solano County Water Agency voted Thursday to cease talking to Flannery Associates about their California Forever plan in regard to water use.
“Unless the agency decides to pursue it, and they ask us to do it, we will just look at other options,” said Jan Sramek, CEO and founder of California Forever, the parent company of Flannery Associates.
Through the opposition and obstacles, Sramek says the company’s thoughts on public interest in the project remain unchanged despite the dozens of public commenters during Thursday's meeting.
“I think there are people that don’t like development at all and they have been fighting development of the county for a long time,” said Sramek. “They’ve weaponized this idea of Travis, and they've weaponized this idea of water, and they’ve weaponized everything else to be against the project. They had no issue when all sorts of people were buying land around Travis in the last 20 years.”
California Forever announced Wednesday their new 21-person advisory committee made up of community members.
The list, found on the California Forever website, includes members like Solano County Sheriff Tom Ferrara, President and CEO of Visit Fairfield Anand Patel and Travis Armed Forces Committee Executive Board member Erick Fierro among others.
The committee was created to use their "broad and diverse" backgrounds to give feedback and help shape the California Forever proposal which eventually will be voted on, according to California Forever.
They’re also relying on public opinion from the surveys sent out to nearly half of the people living in Solano County.
While full results aren’t out yet, Sramek gave ABC10 a look into some of what he says thousands of responses say.
“There are definitely more people that support the project than there are opponents and we are starting to see a list of priorities of what people care about — and jobs and homes. Homes in walkable safe neighborhoods are definitely the top two,” he said.
Sramek says there’s nothing, from opposition during public comment in meetings to opposition on survey responses, that will make Flannery Associates walk away from California Forever.
The group will continue to meet with the public and officials through multiple town halls throughout the county. California Forever has also secured offices in Fairfield and Vacaville which will soon be open to allow people to see plans for the proposed city — plans expected to be released in January.
Sramek says California Forever is a temporary name for the proposed city and Flannery Associates is looking for official city names. Many people have emailed in ideas and they’re asking for additional input from the community. Email contact@californiaforever.com to contact them.
Keep up with ABC10’s coverage of the proposed new city HERE.
