Exclusive | California Forever’s billionaire backers scramble for lifeline after botching key plan

California Forever, the billionaire-backed group proposing a futuristic megacity in the Bay Area, has spent months holding weekly meetings with local officials over plans for a massive new shipyard — yet it oddly never submitted even a preliminary application for the project, a top county official told The California Post.

“We haven’t ever received a pre-application or a project proposal for a shipbuilding project in the Collinsville area,” Debbie Vaughn, assistant county administrator for Solano County, told The Post in an exclusive interview.

The disclosure comes as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration and California Forever — bankrolled by tech billionaires including Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman, Michael Moritz and Patrick Collison —feverishly push for special legislation aimed at jump-starting the controversial development before lawmakers adjourn at the end of August.

Vaughn said county officials have been meeting with California Forever weekly since the beginning of the year over the proposed shipyard, once pitched as a possible home for defense startup Saronic’s $3.2 billion Port Alpha project.

The shipyard proposal promised to create thousands of new, good-paying jobs in the area — but the startup abruptly bailed for Texas last month.

The county laid out an expedited path through the normal approval process, with an aggressive schedule envisioning a draft environmental impact report within months, Vaughn said.

But California Forever never submitted the project needed to begin it.

“There was nothing submitted, so this never happened,” Vaughn said. “I don’t know how else to say it. There was never a project submitted.”

California Forever pushed back on the county’s characterization of the proposed fast-track, arguing it still would have left Saronic facing an unacceptable timeline and years of potential litigation.

Officials told The Post that the county’s conventional process included roughly nine to 12 months to prepare environmental reviews — followed by the possibility of years of litigation under the California Environmental Quality Act.

That uncertainty was unacceptable for prospective employers, particularly Saronic, which repeatedly communicated the need to break ground on an autonomous shipyard in 2026, according to California Forever.

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Saronic ultimately announced last month that it would build Port Alpha in Brownsville, Texas, dealing a major blow to California Forever’s plans.

California Forever is now desperately seeking an avenue for legislation.

The developers — who not only want to create a shipyard, but also a manufacturing hub and a new, walkable city — have enlisted ex-Democratic legislative leaders Darrell Steinberg and Bob Hertzberg to join its six-figure lobbying spree in Sacramento.

Late last month, The Post revealed that Newsom and California Forever CEO Jan Sramek quietly met in the governor’s office on April 1. That report came on the heels of Dee Dee Myers, the director of the governor’s GO-Biz economic development office, issuing a memo urging support for California Forever’s ambitions as a huge opportunity to add jobs and housing — as well as a matter of national security.

But it’s still unclear which, if any, lawmaker will step up to introduce California Forever’s special legislation.

Beth Rimbey, a spokesperson for state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, whose district includes the proposed development, told The Post that California Forever’s proposal continues to be shrouded in secrecy.

“The senator has been very vocal about wanting a fully transparent, Democratic process,” Rimbey said.

Cabaldon and other legislators have still not seen draft language for the legislation, according to Rimbey. The senator also has concerns about developers relying on an environmental report nearly two decades old.

“Everyone has been sitting down for the same meetings and talks, and he’s keeping his mind open,” Rimbey said. “But a lot of his issues haven’t changed with the project.”

Rimbey said Cabaldon wants to see a shipyard built, but he argues it needs to be done correctly, with transparency around costs and the potential impact on the local environment.

“This chatter of ‘let’s just get started’ and figure it all out later — to [Cabaldon’s] point, you have these environmental laws put in place for exactly this reason,” Rimbey said. “These are sensitive waterways.”

Assemblywoman Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City), whose district could be home to the development, has not been asked by California Forever to pursue legislation this year, according to her office.

While Wilson is working to make Solano County more competitive for shipbuilding, her office said, she believes annexation is a local matter that should remain subject to existing laws and due process, which may mean she is opposed to California Forever’s intended legislation.

California Forever officials said they have strong a working relationship with Wilson and intend to continue providing her with information about the project.

Mark Reed, chairman of the Solano County Republican Party and a fierce California Forever opponent, said The Post’s interview with the county administrator bolsters suspicions he already had about the shipyard proposal.

“We knew from the beginning the shipyard proposal was never a serious thing,” Reed said.

Saronic did publicly identify California as one of the locations still competing for Port Alpha as recently as June, but Reed alleged California Forever was simply “using this to get public support for the city built up.”

Reed and others said the shipyard and Saronic’s decision have become a distraction from the larger fight over California Forever’s planned city, which would require billions in infrastructure costs to provide electricity, water and roadways.

The conversation on the city, however, is now deeply embedded in conversations about special legislation, as California Forever noted in a blog post last week that new housing is a requirement for the shipyard and a manufacturing hub.

“There was no conversation last year at all about linking that legislation to the city,” Vaughn told The Post.

California Forever has separately sought to advance the city by annexing its land into Suisun City, allowing the proposal to move through the city and LAFCO approval process rather than a countywide vote.

The Silicon Valley-backed venture has spent years acquiring tens of thousands of acres in eastern Solano County and wants to build a walkable new city that could eventually house about 400,000 people. It’s also spent hundreds of thousands lobbying Sacramento officials while cozying up to Newsom’s administration.

But without a legislative breakthrough or the land eventually being rezoned through the local process, the billionaire-backed development faces a much longer road — and risks becoming one of the most speculative real estate investments in recent California history.