Anti-democratic vistas: Plans for a new city in Northern Californian farmlands draw ire

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Anti-democratic vistas: Plans for a new city in Northern Californian farmlands draw ire from concerned officials

By Josh Niland Sep 4, '23 12:00 PM EST



Image: Ben Paulos via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Over a five-year period, the company became the largest landowner in Solano County after purchasing more than 55,000 acres of undeveloped land. The company has paid more than $800 million since 2018, according to court records. [...]

On the eastern end of Solano County, the city of Rio Vista is now surrounded by Flannery Associates land. Mayor Ronald Kott said that, like many Solano County officials, he had not been approached by anyone from the company to discuss plans for the land. — LA Times

Similar to Marc Lore’s utopian vision for a new $400 billion Shenzhen-style city from scratch called Telosa, the secretive land grab-cum-startup city lies suspiciously close to Travis Air Force Base and is being marketed as a “new city with tens of thousands of new homes, a large solar energy farm, orchards with over a million new trees, and over ten thousand acres of new parks and open space.”

Democratic Representative Mike Thompson told reporters last week he was “very concerned about our national security” related to the plan's proximity to the base. Some residents have reported “fear” in their dealing with the company, including concerns about retaliation. The company, meanwhile, maintains its secrecy is deliberate and intended to prevent possible real estate speculation on the part of landowners, a group of whom they have sued for collusion.

[SWBTATTReg]

1. With so much land sales and no one getting wind of the sales, that is something of a concern in

my mind as to what are they planning on doing, that would be so negative if folks found out what they were planning on doing?

I do understand that land speculation could commence, but to be honest w/ you, I feel that people do have the right to price their land at the appropriate price should something occur to jack up the prices of the land, after all, don't they deserve a piece of the pie after holding onto the land for as long as they held it? And more than likely, who manages to keep such information totally secret from everyone? I suspect that speculators, related to the buyers in some fashion, would game the system, keeping everyone else in the dark about what's coming down the road. Deceptive I'd say...

It's kind of like if one were in the city, and they had development all around them, rehabs everywhere, etc., that anyone in their right mind would certainly realize that their plot of house and/or land in the city will fetch a better price. Kind of self-evident and they really can't hide this.

[Auggie]

3. Think they keep it quiet to keep land values from rising. Walt Disney did the same with DisneyWorld.

Disney used a variety of shell companies and ambiguous buyers to gobble up al that swamp land for cheap in Central Florida. Had owners knew what was happening they would have jacked up the price.

[Merlot]

5. Yes, and probably Disney could have afforded the jacked up prices

[Auggie]

6. Can you imagine how cheap swamp land must have been in Central Florida in the mid 60s?

From Wikipedia:

To avoid a burst of land speculation, Walt Disney Productions used various dummy corporations to acquire 27,443 acres (43 sq mi; 111 km2) of land.

In May 1965, some of these major land transactions were recorded a few miles southwest of Orlando in Osceola County. In addition, two large tracts totaling $1.5 million were sold, and smaller tracts of flatlands and cattle pastures were purchased by exotically named companies, such as the "Ayefour Corporation", "Latin-American Development and Management Corporation", and the "Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation". Some are now memorialized on a window above Main Street, U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom.

The smaller parcels of land acquired were called "outs". They were five-acre (2 ha) lots platted in 1912 by the Munger Land Company and sold to investors. Most of the owners in the 1960s were happy to get rid of the land, which was mostly swamp at the time. Another issue was the mineral rights to the land, which were owned by Tufts University. Without the transfer of these rights, Tufts could come in at any time and demand the removal of buildings to obtain minerals. Eventually, Disney's team negotiated a deal with Tufts to buy the mineral rights for $15,000.

Working strictly in secrecy, real estate agents unaware of their client's identity began making offers to landowners in April 1964, in parts of southwest Orange and northwest Osceola counties. The agents were careful not to reveal the extent of their intentions, and they were able to negotiate numerous land contracts with some landowners, including large tracts of land for as little as $100 an acre.With the understanding that the recording of the first deeds would trigger intense public scrutiny, Disney delayed the filing of paperwork until a large portion of the land was under contract.

[hildegaard28]

2. The first

Neo-feudal fiefdom in America.

[Mr.Bill]

4. My wife and I shopped for houses in that area

about seven years ago. There are some housing tracts where the houses are relatively inexpensive, especially for California. Many of those houses are occupied by military and military contractor families, some as renters, some as homeowners. It would not be good for them if the prices skyrocketed in the area.