Here’s what changed in ballot proposal for new Solano County city

California Forever has revised its proposed pitch to voters about the new city it wants to create in east Solano County, namely trimming the acreage by nearly 6% and clarifying the approval process for the envisioned thousands of homes and related development.

The organization has filed with the Solano County Registrar of Voters an updated version of the initiative it wants to put on the November ballot, and a spokesperson said the changes resulted from comments by the county and stakeholders.

The original 83-page version submitted Jan. 17 said the new community would cover 18,600 acres north of Highway 12 and west of the city of Rio Vista. The revised 86-page version, filed Jan. 29, puts the proposed area at 17,500 acres. (The group posted a document that shows what changed.)

“The community size did not change. We just corrected acreage calculations,” said Justin Kramer, spokesperson for California Forever.

Kramer later clarified that the acreage for some of the areas was double-counted in the original filing but the proposed community boundaries haven’t changed.

The ballot effort comes after several years of acquiring about 60,000 acres of largely farmland southeast of Travis Air Force Base by Flannery Associates and a few months of public meetings by Flannery’s developer, California Forever. The first phase is envisioned to accommodate up to 50,000 residents, growing to as large as 400,000 at full development.

A coalition of local farming and regional environmental groups has formed to opposed the project. A spokesperson for Solano Together said the modified initiative honed language related to the 10 “guarantees” in the proposal.

"The ‘voters intent’ will unfortunately carry no weight in crafting a development agreement,“ wrote Sadie Wilson of Greenbelt Alliance, a Solano Together member, in an email. ”This vote is on the change in zoning to allow for a new city to occupy farmland in a remote part of Solano County, not on any meaningless promises that have been sprinkled on top.”

Among the relatively few changes in the modified proposed initiative is a shift in what action the county Board of Supervisors would have to take on a development agreement if the ballot effort is successful from “approves” to “considers for approval.”

To qualify the initiative for the ballot, California Forever would need to collect at least 13,062 signatures by Aug. 8, according to Assistant Registrar of Voters John Gardner. That’s based on 10% of the number of county voters in the previous gubernatorial election.

But before that ballot cutoff date, the county election office may need up to 90 calendar days to verify signatures, and the Board of Supervisors would have to approve the petition by at least its Aug. 6 meeting, Gardner said.

The registrar office’s verification timeline includes as many as 30 days for a count of all signatures on the petition forms. Then it potentially could take another 60 days for checking eligibility of all those who signed if a 3% random sample (roughly 500 signatures) finds 90%–110% of the needed minimum signatures (11,755–14,368) are valid. Less than that, and the petition effort doesn’t move forward. More than that, and the initiative progresses.

California Forever plans to turn in its signed petitions well ahead of the deadline.

“We’re aiming to submit signatures by the end of spring,” Kramer said.

The drive for signatures can’t start until the County Counsel’s office writes the initiative title and summary. It has 15 days after the initiative petition is finalized to do so, under the Election Code.

Solano Together plans to livestream the official kickoff of its opposition campaign at noon Sunday from Suisun City a few miles west of the proposed community site.

Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.

Correction, Feb. 5, 2024: Greenbelt Alliance’s name was misstated.