Last July, California Forever CEO Jan Sramek said he would bring the initiative back to voters in 2026 after completing an environmental impact report and ironing out a development agreement with the county. But now that Suisun City officials want to incorporate California Forever’s massive proposed development into their city, it is unclear whether voters will get a say in what gets built in their county.
The Suisun City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a reimbursement agreement with California Forever that would allow the city to continue exploring the proposal. California Forever declined to comment on that agreement.
Sadie Wilson, director of planning and research at the Greenbelt Alliance and a member of the group Solano Together, said the opportunity for public engagement is an important one for a project of this size and questioned whether the annexation process would usurp voters’ ability to weigh in.
“While we might see what’s going on in the process from an advocacy or public standpoint, there aren’t the same ways to actually have your voice heard,” she said.
But Suisun City Manager Bret Prebula rejected that idea.
“Is this a trick that someone’s trying to do backdoor things? The answer is no,” he said. “Why is this beneficial? Because [California Forever gets] a governance and a culture from cities that is hard to do when you just do master-planned communities without it.”
Prebula said the development could also benefit Suisun City, which has faced a structural budget deficit for years.
“Some don’t want any expansion, but that’s unrealistic in our state,” he said. “We’re gonna have this balance that happens between the need for commercial viability, jobs and housing stock expansion that will benefit the state, that will benefit the region, and it’ll benefit the environment, too, because we’re going to be able to keep people closer to their families [and] jobs here.”
Of the 22,873 acres Suisun City wants to incorporate, about a quarter of the land would be preserved as a buffer zone between the new development and nearby Travis Air Force Base. Two-thirds of the annexed land would be reserved for new neighborhoods, office and commercial buildings and open space, with another 1,410 acres for an industrial park.
With a large share of county residents currently commuting outside the county for work, Suisun City Mayor Alma Hernandez called the prospect of adding jobs and housing a “generational opportunity that will most likely never come again.”
She said the proposal before the council is just the first step in a lengthy public process to determine what will be best for both her city and Rio Vista, which neighbors Suisun City and is also exploring annexing some of the company’s land. In April, the two cities agreed to work together as both consider expanding their respective boundaries.
“Our position at this time is really, this is a starting point,” she said. “We’re very clear about it for ourselves: How do you build a community and expand in the right way? That is our position.”
Rio Vista Mayor Edwin Okamura said he could not comment on his city’s progress in those discussions or on Suisun City’s plans because he and other officials were in the middle of negotiations themselves.
