– Gov. Newsom’s administration is supporting the California Forever project, a billionaire-backed effort to build a new city in Solano County
– The project hired two former Newsom allies (Darrell Steinberg and Bob Hertzberg) as special counsel in April 2026
– Newsom’s GO-Biz office has been helping with negotiations involving the defense company Saronic
– An anonymous source said Newsom wants the project for high-wage jobs before leaving office
– The project is seeking state legislation to expedite environmental reviews and potentially bypass county restrictions
– Critics say it’s a “backroom deal” with billionaires
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration made a “Herculean effort” to convene regulators and keep negotiations alive for the billionaire-backed California Forever mega-project as it nearly lost a key defense contractor to Texas.
A source close to the negotiations said Newsom has been supportive, telling reporters: “He wants this. He’d like to go out of office with thousands of new high-wage jobs for California,”
though the source was unauthorized to speak publicly.
California Forever brought on former state legislative leaders Darrell Steinberg, a former mayor of Sacramento and close ally of Governor Gavin Newsom, and Bob Hertzberg, a former Assembly speaker, in the role of special counsel to the project after both had been working with California Forever for free before being added to the payroll in April.
Opponents have criticized the project as the brainchild of secretive billionaires who bought up land via a shell company and tried to influence the state for support by hiring lobbyists close to the governor.
California Forever, the tech billionaire-backed group that hopes to build a city from scratch on farmland in Solano County, is lobbying state leaders to fast-track a massive shipbuilding deal while seeking a deal to expedite environmental reviews of the development and, if necessary, bypass county restrictions on building by being absorbed into Suisun City boundaries.
A source familiar with the negotiations told The Post that Saronic executives visited Solano County in September 2025 and April 2026, but state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon and members of the Solano County Board of Supervisors declined to meet with the company.
Opponents also slammed California Forever for pursuing relief behind closed doors with state leaders and circumventing local opposition.
In a letter sent to Newsom and legislative leaders this week, supporters warned that without legislative approval California could lose billions of dollars in investment and tens of thousands of jobs this summer to Texas and other states.
Last fall, GO-Biz helped organize a bid for Saronic to settle in Solano County, with county staff reporting during a board meeting that GO-Biz supported a legislative effort to override the county’s “orderly growth” law.
Steinberg and Hertzberg told CalMatters they are contemplating legislation to expedite environmental reviews, with their plan allowing the governor to designate construction on company land as “environmental leadership development projects,” which would effectively require any litigation to be resolved within 270 days.
Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos said the governor “has been clear that our state needs more housing and opportunities to achieve the California Dream,” pointing to his signing the law overhauling CEQA last year and support for a November bond measure that could generate billions for rental housing and homeownership programs and housing for veterans.
State Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, a Napa Democrat who represents the area, said “For a project this scale in this location, it is what the (law) was designed for,” and asked “A central question for the people of Solano County is: Is this going to be for the community or is this a conversion project that leaves them behind?”
When Solano Together heard reports that Governor Newsom’s office was considering a proposal by California Forever’s lobbyists for a last-minute, backroom deal to secure preferential treatment for their project, the group quickly sprang into action.
Over the course of a weekend, supporters sent over 3,600 emails to their representatives expressing their concerns and pleading for the Governor not to accept backroom deals.
Marc Andreessen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, holds investments in both California Forever and Saronic, the defense company eyeing California.
Newsom’s push for the project marks a shift from his earlier skepticism.
In 2023, Newsom said he would soon meet with a representative of the development to learn more about a proposal that has provoked sharp pushback and intense interest, telling a POLITICO forum: “I’m as curious as everyone else. The project is obviously interesting in terms of its scale and its scope.”
Newsom suggested the backers hurt their own credibility by acquiring the land over several years in such a way that fostered mistrust, saying: “I’ll be candid with you. They started a little behind in my book because of the fact that they let so much intrigue and so many questions so there’s a lot more doubt now and a lot less trust.”
In 2023, Flannery’s backers were unmasked as a group of wealthy venture capitalists including the founders of LinkedIn and Netscape, all led by former Goldman Sachs trader and real estate developer Jan Sramek.
California Forever has signed a 40-year labor agreement with the Napa-Solano Building Trades Council and the Northern California Carpenters Union, which together represent nearly 90,000 workers.
In the viral moment that sparked ongoing state attention, California Forever CEO Jan Sramek courted venture capitalists and wealthy Silicon Valley figures starting in 2017 to purchase farmland secretly through a shell company.
Flannery Associates started buying up farmland in 2018, eventually acquiring 62,000 acres while routinely refusing to answer questions about its backers, with some farmers later alleging the company used strong-arm tactics to get them to sell.
The secrecy sparked initial suspicion about foreign government involvement, especially given the project’s proximity to Travis Air Force Base.
In 2024, the company debuted the East Solano Plan to rezone 17,500 acres of agricultural land for a dense, 400,000-person city.
Last fall, California Forever CEO Jan Sramek confirmed the group’s plan to become an “extension” of nearby Suisun City after a scathing report by county officials caused them to withdraw a ballot measure they’d been pushing in 2024.
California Forever is now making a big push to use an obscure mechanism to add things into an already adopted budget through a trailer bill in August when the legislature comes back into session.