It’s been two and a half years since news emerged of a tech-billionaire-backed idea to put a 400,000-person city in Solano County, and a lot of big questions remain—as indicated by the 616 pages of public comments just on the notice that an environmental impact report was coming.
After California Forever pulled a controversial ballot measure that would have put the development in voters’ hands, the project kept moving forward. Now the project has been reimagined as an expansion of tiny, broke Suisun City, and California Forever has officially begun preparing the environmental impact report people first asked for two years ago. It will be the first comprehensive look at what the massive development could mean for nature in southeastern Solano County.
The public comments, submitted by 38 individuals or groups, offer feedback on the environmental impact report’s notice of preparation, or NOP, a step that lets government agencies and members of the public chime in about what they want to see in the draft report. Project developers must address these comments in the report to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. But such comments rarely attract much public interest: Jim Bermudez, deputy city manager for Suisun City, says in his 25 years of experience in city permitting, he’s “never really been down that road.”
The area for the proposed urban and industrial development is part of the larger Jepson Prairie ecosystem, home to California’s last remaining claypan vernal pools, and one of the few remaining rural corners of the Bay Area in a state where agricultural land is on the decline. California Forever told Bay Nature over email that its development will be “the most sustainable city in the United States.”
According to the NOP, the first phase of construction will begin on 6,080 acres over the next 20 years, and might support up to 150,000 of the projected eventual 400,000 residents. Suisun City has a current population of 40,000 and is surrounded by wind farms and agricultural lands. Most of the targeted 6,080 acres are privately owned and have not been surveyed for biodiversity in decades.
The public comments reveal key questions that continue to shroud the development—and the rifts that have developed over it, too.
Is there enough water for everybody?
The first phase of the development will rely on groundwater and recycled water alone, according to California Forever’s plan. But multiple government bodies, from the Bay Conservation and Development Commission to the Solano Groundwater Management Authority, note in their public comments that few have ever used groundwater from southeastern Solano, let alone monitored its quality or studied what 150,000 new residents all using it at once might mean for water bodies across the region, like neighboring Suisun Marsh. “Vague statements like ‘water will be available’ are insufficient,” writes James Bezek, Solano County Director of Resource Management.
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How will people get there?
Adding 150,000 people to the region will increase traffic on both of the two ways in. The northerly approach is two-lane State Route 12, which California tiger salamanders migrate across during late winter; coming from the east requires going over a drawbridge at Rio Vista. The project outline describes “improvements” to State Route 12 as part of the development but offers few details. “Given the scale of the added development, [the added traffic] will not be the case of the ‘straw breaking the camels [sic] back,’ but rather a ‘ton of bricks being placed on a frail camel,’ totally overwhelming the Rio Vista Bridge and [State Route 12] corridor,” comments Joseph Green-Hefferman, a Fairfield resident and retired civil engineer. At least nine commenters ask for a full traffic analysis of the congestion from the project, and more details on what kinds of “multi-modal transportation” the project’s notice of preparation promises.
What happens to the rare animals, plants, and ecosystems that live in the area?
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife lists at least ten different protected species the project may impact. The California Native Plant Society, Center for Biological Diversity, and multiple Solano residents all want to know how the project will align with the Solano County Habitat Conservation Plan, a yet-to-be-approved federal permit that has been in the works since 2000 and is meant to guide endangered species conservation and development across Solano County. Ted Swicki, a scientific advisor to the Habitat Conservation Plan, says that if California Forever moves forward, “the HCP would certainly go in the dumper.”
What happens to the neighbors?
To the east of California Forever’s land is Rio Vista, a 10,000-person city that once seemed to be partners with Suisun City in the annexation and expansion plans, though the two cities appear to have broken up. Now, Rio Vista has questions about the details missing from the NOP—like when and how the city will grow from 150,000 to 400,000 people. “Absent more detailed information… the Project Description in the forthcoming EIR will not satisfy the legal requirements,” Rio Vista city manager Kristina Miller writes.
Project making progress, amid tensions
California Forever CEO Jan Sramek promised the full report, which he estimates will be more than 12,000 pages long, by “early 2026,” in an interview with the pro-development Arena Magazine. Suisun City mayor Alma Hernandez said in a public meeting a report would not be ready before fall 2026. Either way, California Forever is pushing forward; Bermudez says surveys for the environmental impact report have been in progress since 2024. Sramek recently announced a 40-year agreement between California Forever and labor unions for the development’s construction, and simultaneously launched a petition to call on elected leaders to break ground on the city in 2026. The petition had 1,815 signatures as of Wednesday, March 4.
On the ground, tensions are evident. The public meeting in December 2025 where Suisun City’s consultants presented the notice of preparation became heated within minutes of opening for questions, as attendees accused Bermudez and the Suisun City government of “squash[ing] our ability to have public dialogue.” “Don’t blame the city for those meetings going awry,” Bermudez responded, and promised more public meetings about the project in January and February of 2026, none of which happened.
About 90 people marched to protest California Forever at the end of January, holding signs like “Save the Wetlands!” A Jan. 27 poll from independent group FM3 found 65 percent of Suisun City residents oppose the development. California Forever and Hernandez have disputed its findings.
