From the moment I heard about tech billionaires A strange plan to create a bustling new city In the heart of Solano County, California, I was preoccupied with a fundamental question: Who will actually run this thing?
The libertarian dream of creating a new community from scratch is nice, but the bottom line is you can’t run a municipality of any real size without a bunch of boring, dysfunctional bureaucrats deciding local zoning laws. and how tax dollars are used. Sure, bulldozers and construction workers could build a bunch of new buildings, but it’s unclear — at least from statements by the project’s backers — who will be in charge of the city once it’s actually built.
Early on, California Forever showed that they had some pretty radical ideas about how to run a city.Developers unintentionally reveal their intentions Funding communities entirely through the private sector Money, the entire city project is more or less seen as a business opportunity. From these statements, it seems like the city has the potential to become some kind of horrific dystopian version. Disney story life, one corporation effectively calls the shots, while residents are merely passive prisoners within overpriced walls. The question of how the city will run is an open question with more than a few unhappy answers.
Now, however, the key question appears to have been answered: Forever California’s new cities will have no local government at all. Instead, developers plan to keep the new urban center an unincorporated area and leave management to existing county governments that already control the area.in a recent interviews In partnership with YIMBY (“Yes In My Backyard”), an online media outlet that promotes Bay Area development, California Forever’s planning director Gabriel Metcalf revealed that there will be no local government to regulate activities within the city’s borders:
due to: So, apart from the county government, there won’t be any local government to manage the city?
Gabriel Metcalfe: Yes, our intention is to retain a portion of unincorporated Solano County. Therefore, the political body with jurisdiction is the County Board of Supervisors. We will have a very close working relationship with the county, providing police and fire services and all services, and working together on economic development projects. I hope we will become very close partners.
This is interesting—and not unprecedented.The United States has many unincorporated territories, many of which are small poor communityalthough there are many large and thriving metropolitan area These are unincorporated cities, similar to California’s Forever Cities, that rely on county governments for regulation.
However, if the proposed government organization of the new city is any precedent, it does raise a lot of questions about how the project will be implemented. actually Function. If Solano County government suddenly faced huge new responsibilities and had to help regulate various parts of the booming (and potentially chaotic) city-building process, how would the existing bureaucracy handle it? And, as the city grows and its population increases, will the county’s resources become stretched thin — especially when it comes to essential services like police and firefighters — with a particular preference for new communities?
In an interview with YIMBY, Metcalf revealed another interesting aspect of the project, which is that the residents of the new city (and Solano County) don’t have much say in the direction of the new community. When asked how county voters could maintain some “checks and balances” on new development that is expected to take 40 years to effectively mature, Metcalfe responded:
There are two primary ways Solano County voters maintain democratic oversight. One is the terms of the voter initiative itself, which are legally binding. These have been developed through close consultation with the people and elected leaders of the county. It includes funding commitments, zoning scope and development footprint. So all of this is decided by a vote of the people.
In other words, whatever is in it ballot initiative (Voters will go to the polls in November) What will happen. But Metcalf had more to say:
The second major way in which vote-counting voters exert control is through the terms of development agreements. After our process and voter initiative, we produce a complete EIR (Environmental Impact Report) and then negotiate a development agreement with the County Board of Supervisors. A development agreement is a voluntary contract where both parties can agree on their options.
In other words, voters have no real control over this development. County residents will get whatever is on the ballot initiative if they vote for it. In the meantime, a development agreement will be worked out between the county Board of Supervisors and the company. The rest of the scene—and how ordinary people fit into it—remains an open question.