Suisun City Council opens door for California Forever land annexation

SUISUN CITY – The Suisun City Council approved the first step toward annexation of 22,873 acres of California Forever-owed property on Tuesday with 15,740 acres slated for future development.

The proposed Suisun Expansion Specific Plan, which was approved 4-1 at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, would add 150,000 residents by 2048 and achieve full build out by 2071. The Suisun meeting documents do not state the full build out population, but the original California Forever proposal was designed to eventually accommodate up to 400,000 residents.

The move comes after California Forever, a billionaire-backed group that had been secretly buying land for years, pulled a ballot measure to establish a new city on the same land last July after preliminary review of the proposal highlighted environmental concerns and projected it would cause nearly $200 million in annual county and agency deficits and polls showed substantial opposition to the project.

Under the agreement with Suisun, California Forever will pay an initial deposit of $400,000 and provide full reimbursement of the staff time and consultant fees needed to complete the annexation, and for California Environmental Quality Act review of future proposed development plans.

Once the studies are complete, the city has no obligation to move forward with the annexation, which would need final approval from the Solano County Local Agency Formation Commission. 

California Forever would provide payments totaling $10 million to be allocated by the city for public benefit if the annexation is approved. 

California Forever is keeping other options open during this process. The agreement allows them to also coordinate with the city of Rio Vista, and the option to pay Suisun a $1 million termination fee should the company instead choose to pursue entitlements through Solano County. 

“For too long, Suisun City has been treated like an afterthought, boxed in and bypassed and left out of the prosperity that has lifted other communities around us,” Suisun City Manager Bret Prebula said during Tuesday’s meeting.

Speakers who opposed the proposal cited loss of cattle grazing land and environment for sensitive species, lack of transparency in the process, mistrust of California Forever, lack of water supply and cost of Highway 12 expansion. 

Those in favor welcomed economic opportunity and increased housing capacity. Several speakers from building trades cited the need for jobs.

The single-topic city council meeting lasted over 4-and-a-half hours until after 10:30 p.m., late by Suisun City standards. Mayor Alma Hernandez asked the attending public for a show of hands both for and against the proposal to give the council a visual, recognizing that some participants had to get up before 4 a.m. to work and might leave before they had an opportunity to speak. 

Councilmember Princess Washington  cast the only “no” vote on the item. She said she was alarmed by a letter from the Solano County supervisors that requested a halt to annexation talks. She said that she was elected to speak for the people, and that 21 of 25 written comments received before the meeting were against the project, and that the public attending the meeting was split about 50/50. 

“What are the financial gains for this, that we can actually look at scientifically with data and not just opinions, not just feelings?” she said. 

Washington said that she would push for the people of Suisun to vote on the matter before a final decision is made to submit the annexation application to the county.

“And I think that this idea that being huge, it will solve all our problems is a fallacy, because if that were the case, no other city would have deficits,” Washington said. “I would be remiss if I didn't stand with the people and vote no.”

Hernandez said Suisun is facing a fiscal cliff in 15 years once the revenue from a tax measure passed last fall is depleted. “My goal for this reimbursement agreement is that it helps us to find the answers that we need to make, the decisions that we need to do going forward,” she said.