A rural community threatened by Silicon Valley's utopian plans

In August, the New York Times revealed the identity of a buyer who has been snapping up plots of land in the hinterland between San Francisco and Sacramento, the capital of the state of California, for several years.

It's a company called Flannery Associates, created by Jan Sramek, a former banker who founded a continuing education company.

The organization recently said on its website that it has acquired more than 20.200 hectares of land for its "California Forever" project, with backers including Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, Laurene Powell Jobs , widow of Steve Jobs, and Marc Andreessen, star tech investor.

According to court documents, the tech moguls have already paid more than $800 million to realize their vision of a city in the middle of nowhere.

“It wasn't decided at Burning Man (a festival with utopian ideology) by taking magic mushrooms,” said John Sweeney, a landowner in Solano County, now surrounded by land purchased by Flannery.

According to several residents interviewed by AFP, the company began buying land in this county, between the city of Fairfield and Travis Air Force Base, about five years ago.

“Schemes”

Cassandra Dana remembers receiving her first unsolicited offer from Flannery to buy her ranch in 2018. They haven't stopped calling her since.

“Now, when they call and give me their ID, I hang up immediately,” she says. “They even went to my eldest daughter and asked her... to sell without my consent.”

Mr. Sweeney was contacted five years ago by a group allegedly interested in his property, in order to preserve it for agriculture.

According to him, the residents of this close-knit community were the targets of "all kinds of schemes. It was quite disingenuous in general."

According to the project's website, the new city will be "home to the agriculture and green energy industries that sustainably feed and fuel our state, an ideal place to live for the middle class, and the busiest air base in our country".

It "will include a variety of land uses: a new city, but also solar farms and open spaces, including both agriculture and protection of the natural environment."

But the road to utopia is paved with pitfalls.

Flannery filed suit against some landowners in federal court, accusing them of ganging up on her to obtain higher sale prices. The company is seeking half a billion dollars.

“From what they say, it sounds like there were big meetings to decide how to rip off Flannery,” Mr. Sweeney remarks. "Well, no. Everyone just knew that if we waited longer, we'd get more money. It makes sense."

Flannery declined an interview request.

herd of goats

The mayor of Fairfield, Catherine Moy, claims to have only learned of the existence of this land acquisition campaign a few weeks ago.

“We are trying to understand what is happening,” she said. Flannery purchased land around the air base, which is used in particular to transport equipment to Ukraine and other regions of the world, according to the elected official.

"At this point, I oppose it. Anything that threatens Travis Air Force Base threatens my city and the country."

For now, these lands are occupied by livestock, wind turbines, farmers and breeders who have long cohabited in harmony with the base, she emphasizes.

“This city project breaks my heart because it will ruin our entire rural area, all these beautiful expanses of land,” continues Cassandra Dana while tending to a small herd of goats.

Ms Moy wrote a letter to the state's governor, Gavin Newsom, expressing her concerns.

Last week, Mr. Newsom said the project surprised him, too, and he wanted to know more.

The project website does not provide practical details, such as the water supply needed to build the new city.

This project “would transform the countryside into a modern San Francisco, I imagine,” laughs John Sweeney.