Supporters’ initial plan was to qualify a county ballot measure for the November 2024 election, which was necessary to circumvent an existing slow-growth law, the Orderly Growth Initiative. Voters had approved that measure in 2008. The East Solano Plan initiative, as it was dubbed, would have rezoned agricultural land for urban uses, but in 2024 its backers pulled it from the ballot after its public-information and lobbying campaign faltered. Instead, California Forever said it would work with county officials to get approval in the usual way.
That effort remains tangled up in disputes, as the company runs into expected roadblocks from local officials. Last year, it sought last-minute state legislation to streamline approvals for a manufacturing hub and shipyard. The company was trying to lure Texas-based Saronic Technologies to build a $3.2-billion shipbuilding operation at the mouth of the Sacramento River across from Antioch on the western edge of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The defense startup, which builds autonomous naval vehicles, had narrowed its search to the California site and one in Brownsville, Texas.
That legislative effort failed and in July Saronic announced it had selected the Port of Brownsville site near the Gulf of Mexico. Nevertheless, California Forever tried again at the end of this year’s legislative session to pass legislation that would have allowed the company to use an 18-year-old environmental impact report to build a shipyard. It failed last month after supervisors voted 3-2 against it, in what CalMatters called a surprise vote. The bill’s author, Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City, said she would respect the board’s decision and pulled the bill, per the news report.
