Information {that a} group of tech billionaires has bought 55,000 acres in japanese Solano County with plans to create a brand new metropolis is assembly with criticism from native politicians and consternation from Bay Space thought leaders. However some objections to the brand new metropolis don’t maintain water and Northern Californians ought to regard this growth with cautious optimism.
Critics fault the proposed metropolis for not being close to transit, with the implication that it’s going to result in extra driving and greenhouse gasoline emissions than the city infill tasks that native planners choose. However the land gathered by the investor group, Flannery Associates, is close to the Capitol Hall rail line which offers service to Sacramento and San Jose, together with transfers to BART in Richmond and Oakland. Right this moment, departures on this line are restricted and journey instances are comparatively lengthy, however the Capitol Hall Joint Powers Authority has a plan to extend and speed up service.
Additional, as communications expertise improves and distant work turns into normalized, the necessity for residents of a brand new japanese Solano County metropolis to commute ought to be restricted. The brand new metropolis will possible embrace a set of densely populated, mixed-use communities. If that’s the case, residents will stay inside a brief stroll, bike journey or scooter journey from buying, eating, leisure, academic and co-working amenities, enormously decreasing the necessity for native automotive journeys.
Infill tasks are nice in principle, however usually meet with stiff native resistance, which contributes to excessive development prices and delays. The result’s too usually very costly housing made reasonably priced to some solely by lavish taxpayer subsidies.
One other objection is that the brand new metropolis will abut Travis Air Drive Base purportedly making a nationwide safety risk. However areas close to the northeastern fringe of the bottom are already constructed up, and issues about safety have but to make information. This objection may additionally come as a shock to residents of San Diego, lots of whom stay inside strolling distance of town’s naval amenities. Equally, Colorado Springs residents stay close to Peterson House Drive Base and Tacoma residents are near the gates of Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
There are additional issues in regards to the stealthy manner by which Flannery Associates acquired its actual property portfolio and the wealth of its buyers. But when Flannery went public initially, its acquisition prices would have been a lot increased. There isn’t a proof that sellers acquired lower than market worth for his or her land, which is all they might fairly anticipate. And tasks of the ultra-rich have been each good and unhealthy. Among the many lasting and well-regarded contributions of the super-rich are the New York Public Library (from Jacob Astor), Stanford College (Leland Stanford), and Public Broadcasting (initially funded by the Ford Basis).
There isn’t a assure that billionaires’ efforts will succeed. They are often pissed off by private vainness, poor execution or easy unhealthy luck. The identical could be mentioned for efforts to begin new cities. Sponsors want solely look a number of hundred miles south for a cautionary story. California Metropolis, an intentional neighborhood in Kern County initially conceived within the late Nineteen Fifties, has confirmed to be a spectacular failure. Fewer than 15,000 residents are scattered throughout town’s 204 sq. miles and a lot of the roads in its grasp plan had been by no means paved.
However japanese Solano County has a greater location virtually equidistant from Sacramento and the East Bay. And, if native voters enable it to proceed, the brand new effort will probably be higher funded than California Metropolis. So, whereas success can’t be assured, the brand new metropolis seems to be a worthy effort and one that can hopefully transfer ahead.
Marc Joffe is a federalism and state coverage analyst at Cato Institute.
