Uber-rich folk from out of town are bringing change, stress and turmoil to rural Solano County.
Kathy Threlfall received two offers from a group of ultra-wealthy Silicon Valley investors to buy her Solano County farm and a two-story farmhouse built by her great-grandparents that’s “a little cocky-wobble” with age. The would-be buyers, a who’s-who of Silicon Valley billionaires, are snapping up farmland and suing neighbors to construct their vision of utopia north of Antioch and east of Vallejo.
The California Forever plan, hatched by former Wall Street trader Jan Sramek, has sparked outrage and worry from local residents up to the U.S. Congress., has spent more than $800 million acquiring tens of thousands of acres of land, according to Solano County and a lawsuit filing.
Artist renderings of a purported utopian plan, building a dream city in rural Solano County by a company, Flannery Associates, made up of ultra-wealthy Silicon Valley investors. Despite the glowing marketing, the enterprise has raised wide-ranging worries — and suspicions — among elected officials fearing everything from a water grab to suburban sprawl to loss of important farmland.
Sramek, according to California Forever, moved to California 10 years ago after living in “many of the world’s most walkable, livable, and sustainable towns and cities” and fell in love with Solano County through fishing trips to the Delta. Sramek and his wife Naytri recently bought a home in the county and “are excited to live here with their toddler daughter, her soon-to-arrive little brother, and golden retriever Bruce,” the website said.
Sheep move around the McCormick Ranch in Rio Vista, Calif., on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023. Al Medvitz and his wife Jeannie McCormack, not pictured, raise sheep for wool and lamb, grow alfalfa, and lease out tracts for wheat, barley and other crops in their 3700-acre farm.
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