2 Solano Cities Could Annex Some of California Forever’s Land. Here’s How

Two of Solano County’s smallest cities are exploring whether to get bigger — by taking over portions of California Forever’s property.

The company is behind a proposed ballot initiative that, if approved, would allow it to eventually build an Oakland-sized city from scratch over what is currently farmland. Earlier this year, elected officials in Suisun City and Rio Vista, two of California Forever’s closest neighbors, directed staff in their respective cities to explore annexing some of the company’s 60,000 acres of unincorporated land.

Since news of the potential annexations broke, county residents have raised questions about the process, how it could impact their cities and the county, and whether voters will be able to weigh in on the proposed ballot initiative, expected to go before voters in November 2026.

We break it all down: why the cities are considering annexation, what that process could look like and how it might impact the company’s proposal.

Why would Suisun City and Rio Vista want to annex California Forever’s land?

At just 4 and 6.6 square miles, respectively, Suisun City and Rio Vista are the smallest cities in the county, geographically speaking. And staff from both cities have said they want to explore annexation to broaden their cities’ tax bases.

However, in Rio Vista, staff have also said they want to maintain the city’s character as a “quaint river town.” They hope, by controlling some of California Forever’s land, they can influence what eventually gets built there.

City managers from both Suisun City and Rio Vista have not said how much land either city might annex. They’re both in the process of drafting reimbursement agreements with California Forever that would allow them to explore annexation on the company’s dime.

What’s in it for California Forever?

The company said it isn’t sure yet. Representatives have repeatedly told KQED they are interested in working with both cities as they explore annexation.

“This is still early innings and there are important procedural steps to work through, but we’re looking forward to getting a reimbursement agreement signed with the cities and getting into discussions of what could be possible,” California Forever CEO Jan Sramek told KQED in a statement.

Apart from the company’s specific motivations, there are myriad reasons a landowner might want to incorporate into a city, said Jim Burling, vice president of legal affairs with the Pacific Legal Foundation and a property rights expert. He said annexation talks usually start after a developer or landowner approaches a city with a plan to build something in an unincorporated area. In this case, the situation was reversed, with Suisun City and Rio Vista initiating the discussions.

“The landowner may not have access to various city services: water, sewer, utilities, police departments — that kind of thing — and the landowner might want to become part of the city in order to get those kinds of services,” he said. “The city might want to get the development, especially if it’s a commercial development, because the city can acquire the tax revenues.”

Not all landowners want to be annexed. When Suisun City reached out to other nearby property holders, some said they weren’t interested because they already have their own trash, water and septic services and didn’t want their property taxes to increase.

Who gets to decide?

In California, the ultimate decision of whether land can be incorporated into a city lies in the hands of the Local Agency Formation Commissions. LAFCOs are independent government agencies made up of elected and appointed officials from cities, the county and the general public.

The agencies were created in 2000 under the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Act to manage city growth and make sure they could provide services to areas under their jurisdictions. According to urbanist and land use expert Alex Schafran, that’s because during the 1940s and ’50s, California experienced a huge boom in population following a surge in land speculation and development. Cities across the state grew aggressively and ate up farmland in the process.

That was the case in Solano County, as well, with cities growing rapidly from the 1970s through the early 2000s, County Administrator Bill Emlen said.

But Schafran said some cities, such as Richmond, grew and annexed land that was geographically disconnected from other parts of the city.

The “checkerboard” nature of city growth made it difficult to provide municipal services and infrastructure to all the areas the city controlled. As a result, some counties were left with their own checkerboard of less valuable unincorporated land.

“LAFCO was created to rein in this crazy annexation wave and, in particular, to put some guardrails around it so that you weren’t leaving the county with islands of less valuable land that it was on the hook to somehow maintain and provide services to,” Schafran said.

Apart from Suisun and Rio Vista in Solano County, Emlen sees a new wave of cities, including Dixon and Vacaville, that are also interested in further expanding their boundaries.

How does annexation work?

The short answer is that a city will put together an application to present to LAFCO, and then the commission votes to approve or deny the annexation. But the process of just getting to the application phase is incredibly lengthy and involves dozens of hearings, negotiations and reports.

The first report is a municipal services review, which outlines the infrastructure and public services that would be needed in the incorporated area and how the city has managed those services within its current boundaries.

Then comes the “Sphere of Influence” report, which lays out what the annexed land will be used for — whether it will remain farmland, for instance, or be redeveloped into homes, retail or office space. It also establishes a physical boundary for the annexed land.

The annexation proposal has to be compliant with the California Environmental Quality Act and reviewed for potential impacts to the environment.

And if a developer wants to build something on the annexed land, it might also enter into a development agreement with the city to clarify what the project would include and how it could impact the city. Burling said this agreement can also assure the developer that its project can be built on the annexed land after it becomes part of the city.

Once a city completes the necessary reviews to submit an application to LAFCO, the agency reviews it and conducts studies of its own, if necessary, on how the city will service the unincorporated land. The commission then votes on whether the annexation can move forward.

When can the public weigh in?

Most of the reports included in the annexation process will be presented during public meetings, where residents can voice opinions in support or opposition of incorporating the land into the city.

If there are landowners or registered voters in the unincorporated area who don’t want their land to be annexed, they can file documentation asking for a protest hearing. If enough landowners are opposed, the proposal either dies or goes to an election among residents in the area slated to be annexed.

However, Christina Love, the deputy executive director for Solano LAFCO, who worked in the city of Vacaville for 13 years, said protest hearings are unusual.

“Speaking from my experience from the city-side of it, the developers have done their homework and either work with the property owners or own the land, so a protest hearing is usually not a big deal,” she said.

How soon could this all happen?

On average, it can take two to five years, but in extreme cases, it can take up to a decade to complete.

How would annexation impact California Forever’s proposal?

We don’t know yet.

Because Rio Vista and Suisun City have not decided how much land they will each annex, or where the annexed land could be located in relation to California Forever’s proposed new city, it’s still unclear how annexation could affect the plan.

The company has also not stated whether it will delay placing its initiative on the 2026 ballot if annexation talks move forward, though both processes could happen simultaneously if the proposed city remains in an unincorporated part of the county. Although California Forever owns some 60,000 acres, its proposed city would sit on only 17,500 acres, with the rest preserved as a buffer zone for the nearby Travis Air Force Base, agricultural land and open space.

Emlen has previously indicated that if either city were successful in annexing all of the land for the new city, California Forever would not be required to present its plan to Solano voters because the company would no longer be building in an unincorporated area and would not be subject to the county’s Orderly Growth Ordinance. The county law requires voter approval to build on agricultural land.

But he said it is unlikely that would happen because LAFCO would require the cities to be able to provide services to the new community, and right now, neither city has that capacity.

Do counties have any say?

The county enters the group chat pretty early.

While a city updates its “sphere of influence” plan, the county must sign off and make sure it is consistent with its own general plan. Love said that if the county and city can agree on the sphere of influence, it makes her job a lot easier.

If not, LAFCO would have to prepare an analysis, including a list of pros and cons for how annexation would impact the county and the city. The commission would have to consider that for its final vote.

While an area of the county is unincorporated, it’s the county’s responsibility to provide services there. It also receives taxes from landowners on properties within its jurisdiction. During the annexation process, the county and city have to agree on how both parties will split the tax revenue.

“The county is going to be losing [its] portion of the property tax,” she said. “So, there is an impact.”

Last July, Solano County officials released a damning report on California Forever’s proposed new town and predicted it would cost the county more than it would bring in revenue. Emlen said the county has not established a position on the potential annexations because he and other staff have not seen a specific proposal.

Burling said it will likely take years to get answers to the many questions surrounding annexation and California Forever’s project.

“Something of the magnitude of California Forever is not going to happen in the blink of an eye,” he said. “I would suspect that you’re going to have an army of lawyers from both sides negotiating this stuff for quite a bit of time. It’s not going to happen overnight.”