Amid the Bay Area’s dire need for more housing, California Forever has set out a bold vision for a new city in east Solano County on 17,500 acres of mostly farmland. But the company, backed by various Silicon Valley billionaires, has so far struggled to garner enough local support. In July, California Forever scrapped plans to ask for voter approval for the project on this November’s ballot, but said it plans to try again in 2026. Many county officials and nearby residents oppose the project, while others want more information about how it would impact their communities. We’ll talk about the state of California Forever’s plans and what could happen next.

Guests:

Adhiti Bandlamud, housing reporter, KQED

J.K. Dineen, Bay Area housing reporter, San Francisco Chronicle

Jan Sramek, founder and CEO, California Forever

Marc Weiss, chairman and CEO, Global Urban Development - a nonprofit organization focused on sustainable economic growth and urban development strategies. He is also a visiting professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley

Check out our last LinkedIn Live with B H Bronson Johnson, our Head of Infrastructure, and Uri Eliahu, GE, President of ENGEO, an engineering and environmental consultancy firm with offices across California.

Uri is a registered Geotechnical Engineer and Civil Engineer in California with many decades of experience working on a wide range of projects. We look forward to discussing what we’re hoping to achieve and explore how we can collectively ignite positive change across California.

If you’d like to learn more about what we’re building, listen to this podcast between Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, and Jan Sramek, our Founder & CEO, where they discuss creating economic opportunity, the importance of local jobs, common misconceptions, what we learned from past projects, and more.

Jan Sramek grew up enamored with the California dream. Today he tells us how he wants to transform that dream into the development of a new 21st-century city on 60,000 acres of rural Solano County. Dubbed California Forever, the project is designed, Sramek says, to reshape the Bay Area housing landscape by adding more than 20,000 homes, creating thousands of jobs, mitigating traffic congestion, and recapturing the spirit of a California that once dreamed big.

Gabriel Metcalf, our Head of Planning, interviewed Laura Crescimano who leads SITELAB urban studio, a Bay-Area design and strategy firm.

Laura is a long-time urban designer with a passion for designing our cities and public spaces for people. In addition to hearing about her work, we'll discuss the challenges behind California's urban planning approach and how the East Solano Plan can offer a solution.

On May 10, we hosted our first LinkedIn Live! Jan Sramek, our Founder & CEO, interviewed Jennifer Hernandez, Lead of West Coast Land Use and Environmental Group at Holland & Knight.

Jennifer is an advocate for sustainable climate solutions that allow the middle class, communities of color and low-income households to achieve upward mobility, including attainable homeownership.

They covered Jennifer's esteemed career, how California’s environmental and land use laws exacerbate the state’s housing crisis, how we can help rebuild the California Dream for working families, and answered questions live.

Jan Sramek, Founder & CEO of California Forever, shares a glimpse of the East Solano Plan for a new community designed for future generations with Bloomberg’s Karen Breslau at Bloomberg Tech in San Francisco.

Jan Sramek, our CEO and founder, joined Pivot to share why he wants to build a new community in Solano County, California, and clear up some of the misconceptions.