Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:02:35] Yeah, I mean, since I was a kid, I feel like Suisun City has pretty much stayed and looked exactly the same as it always has been, but now it’s considering, as you were just saying, to expand outward in size. How exactly do they plan to do this?
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:02:57] The city has been talking about annexation for a long time, basically since the beginning of this year. We didn’t really know how much land it was going to annex or where exactly it was gonna annex this land, but Suisun is kind of surrounded by Fairfield and land that is predominantly owned by California Forever. California Forever, the billionaire backed company that you might remember last year, they kind of introduced this plan to like build a city from scratch. They own a lot of land near Suisun City and they had this grand plan for all of this land, which was to build a city from scratch. It was gonna be walkable and there were gonna be jobs and manufacturing sites. And basically it was going to solve Solano County’s problems of not having enough jobs where people live.
[00:03:56] So if a developer wants to build something out there, they have to get voter approval first. But a couple months before the election, they pulled their initiative from the ballot because a lot of people were asking for environmental reports and information about these jobs and where they would come from and how the company could basically ensure that the promises that they made along the campaign trail could actually be realized. So the company said, got it. We’re not going to bring this to the voters this November. Instead, we’re gonna wait until 2026 and then we’ll bring it back once we have all these studies done.
[00:04:37] In January, Suisun City says, Hey, we’re facing budgetary issues. We need to talk about annexation. And so if Suisun City wants to annex, it kind of has to talk with California Forever. And what the city is proposing to do is to annex almost 23,000 acres of land located pretty much in the same place that California Forever wanted to build its new city.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:05:05] So how would annexation actually work, Adhiti? Would Suisun City basically be paying California Forever for this land?
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:05:15] Really what annexation means is that basically, the landowner, California Forever, will still own that land. So the company will pay for all the consultants and the people who will conduct environmental and fiscal studies and basically a team of people who will start compiling a series of reports that will answer some of these big questions. Then the city can figure out whether this makes sense for them in the long run. Suisun City then becomes the jurisdiction, so it controls what happens on that land.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:05:54] Why would both Suisun City and California Forever want to do this?
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:05:59] So right now, there’s a lot of questions ahead. Will there be really big environmental impacts? Will it be fiscally good for the city if it kind of expands its borders and tries to develop there? What this opportunity gives Suisun is the ability to hopefully get to the bottom of those questions. What California Forever hopes to get is basically California Forever, it seems, could realize its vision for its new city by working with a city like Suisun or Rio Vista, which is also interested in annexing some of their land. But if their land gets annexed into an existing city, it doesn’t require a countywide vote. It’s up to the officials there to kind of work out the logistics of getting this big development built. So it could be a smoother path to get their vision realized.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:07:07] I want to talk about the reaction and the response to this idea because there was a public meeting in Suisun last week where council members voted on this proposal to start exploring the idea of annexation. What was your sense of how the public is feeling about this?
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:07:40] The opinions are really split. And you know, these mixed emotions and also the level of passion that people feel one side or another was really on display during public comment on Tuesday’s meeting.
Public comment [00:07:54] This is universal change in a positive way for this county and for this region so that apprentices like these folks who are here in the room can learn their trade over here and work within half an hour of where they went to school.
[00:08:10] Oakland lost the A’s and they lost the Raiders because of a missed opportunity. This is an opportunity for us and I would highly recommend that you take it.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:08:21] Some people really like the plan because they feel like it could bring opportunity and jobs and housing. You know, there are people who I’ve spoken to who were kind of, you know, pushed out of Oakland and San Francisco into Solano County because of the cost of living. And now the cost of living is starting to increase in Solano and people are really worried about getting pushed out again. And so the hope that they feel is that California Forever will provide them the housing and the jobs needed to stay in Solano and make a life there.
Public comment [00:08:59] I think the only responsible thing to do is explore. You have other cities in our county that have decided for decades to have no growth. And now they’re staring at financial crisis if one of their biggest employers leaves their city. And heaven forbid, you would ever have to face that as well. So please continue this, go down this road and create more opportunities for our men and women to work. Thank you for your time.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:09:25] But there are other people who are really opposed to California Forever. They don’t trust the company.
Public comment [00:09:32] These are profiteers, and they know they can make a hundred times more money than they can in the stock market.
[00:09:39] I have grandchildren who are in their preteens. I live in a neighborhood that has so many kids. They and their parents will be the ones to face the consequences of orderly or disorderly growth.
[00:09:54] There is a lot to lose and I’m not talking about your money. I’m actually talking about this incredible amount of biological diversity that exists in basically in Suisun.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:10:08] You know, the company, when it was buying up all of that land, it sued farmers. And they also don’t like the fact that the company didn’t have a lot of questions answered when they pitched this plan. So there’s a lot distrust and mixed emotions about this company and anything related to it.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:10:29] And what about city officials in Suisun? How are they feeling about this idea?
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:10:36] Most of the city council itself is kind of open to seeing what this means.
Bret Prebula [00:10:42] 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.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:10:53] The city manager, Bret Prebula, is very excited about this opportunity. He spoke at a city council meeting recently, basically saying that like, this is an opportunity for the city to potentially grow.
Bret Prebula [00:11:07] We are looking at expansion in Suisun City because we know we have to. We know we can take more responsibility for the delivery of regional services if we do. And we know this is the right decision to explore for our community.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:11:22] And Bret has talked about the fact that, like, the city has been in this position before and chose not to grow, and it didn’t help their budget. Back in the 1960s, you know, there was a piece of land that Suisun had the opportunity to annex and it later became home to a Budweiser Brewery and the Jelly Belly Factory. And Fairfield, Suisun’s neighbor, annexed that land instead and it helped their city budget. And now Suisun is in this position again. And I think there’s an element of like FOMO here of like we missed out once, we don’t wanna miss out again.
Bret Prebula [00:12:01] We miss 100% of the shots we don’t take. That’s a Wayne Gretzky quote. That’s where we are, ready to take our shot and on the edge of something bigger than ourselves.
Princess Washington [00:12:19] I’m no fool up here, I’m gonna be the only no vote, I’m well aware of that. But I just wanna express my concerns as to why I’m voting this way in respect to my council who I do know are acting in the best interest of the city along with staff.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:12:32] Council member Princess Washington also spoke at the meeting and she has consistently voted against annexation because she has major hesitations about the project and the city just taking on a bunch of land.
Princess Washington [00:12:47] I think that this is a large undertaking and quite frankly, a large headache. And will it really yield the benefit that we want? I haven’t heard with certainty that it will.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:12:58] She feels like it’s gonna just take a lot of time and effort to answer the questions that are involved and it could just be a distraction from what the city needs to solve like its housing crisis and other issues that she feels are kind of more front of front of mind.
Princess Washington [00:13:17] There’s some agility in being small. 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.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:13:28] What about California Forever? What are they saying about this?
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:13:32] California Forever hasn’t really offered a lot of public comment, at least not the way that they were last year. They have offered statements time and time again, basically saying that they’re interested in working with cities that want to talk about annexation. They’re interested in trying to figure out what’s right for everyone and working with various stakeholders. Members of the company have come out during city council meetings to speak during public comment.
Jennifer Hernandez [00:14:01] It has to be a net gain for the the citizens of Suisun to pass muster, to pass muster but you can’t know that until you study it.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:14:13] Jennifer Hernandez, for example, she is the lawyer representing California Forever. She spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, basically saying, like, let us study this. Like, nothing is set in stone. We’re just trying to get some answers.
Jennifer Hernandez [00:14:27] You have a team already in place that is set up to make sure everything’s right for you. Let us study this with you and let’s make sure it’s at no cost to the city or its taxpayers.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:14:48] I mean, all that said, Adhiti, how ultimately did Suisun City vote on the idea of studying annexing California Forever’s land?
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:14:57] The city council voted almost unanimously. Council member Washington voted against it. And so now what we’re looking at is the city will spend the next few months hiring consultants and basically a team of people who will start compiling a series of reports that will answer some of these big questions. One question that they’re going to have to answer is, how will this affect the environment? How is it managing the services, you know, water, sewage, police department, fire department? How is managing all of that within its existing borders? And how will it manage that land that it wants to annex?
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:15:49] These are really big questions, and as we know, it takes a lot of time and effort to even build in California. But I do have to ask, I mean, what is in it for California Forever here? I mean is this basically their way of getting around voters to move forward with its vision of a new city?
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:16:16] What this process means is that yes, there will not be an opportunity for this kind of like direct democracy angle where people will get to kind of say, yes, I want this in my county, or no, I don’t want it in my county. You know, California Forever’s most vocal and I would argue largest opponent group, which is called Solano Together, they are very adamant that they want a vote in this. They want a say in whether this happens or not.
Alex Schafran [00:16:47] This is the Suisun City’s way of saying we’re all in on California Forever.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:16:54] Alex Schafran, he’s a land use expert and someone who has raised serious questions about California Forever’s project. And he kind of had a different take, which is that annexation could be a less bad way of getting this project built.
Alex Schafran [00:17:11] The ballot measure they wrote was such a terrible document for democracy, this 90-page, endless document that people are supposedly voting on. It was an absolute travesty of how they were going to do it.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:17:23] Even if they pass that up-down vote, let’s just say that they got voter approval, we actually don’t know what happens after that. We don’t what legal bearing California Forever has over that land and what gets developed there if the voters approve something like that, if the voter’s don’t approve it, like, like we, you know, we don’t no.
Alex Schafran [00:17:41] We have a system that is designed to do governance and that now it is in that system and that’s where it should be.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:17:49] But annexation is a process that already exists, and we kind of know the steps along the way. Annexation also involves a lot of negotiation. It’s a lot like talking with public agencies and private entities and elected officials.
Alex Schafran [00:18:05] At least this gives them some voice and some control. They will be able to negotiate some benefit out of it.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:18:16] I guess what questions do you have about what this could all mean for Suisun City? Because again, I mean, we’re talking about a city expanding by nine times, and that would be huge, right?
