East Solano Plan – Overview

The East Solano Homes, Jobs, and Clean Energy Initiative will be on the ballot in November 2024. It lays out a plan for building a dynamic new community, with middle class homes in safe, walkable neighborhoods. The plan also includes a commitment to bring 15,000 good paying local jobs to Solano County, $500 million in community benefits like downpayment assistance for Solano residents, and $200 million commitment to invest in revitalizing downtowns in existing Solano cities. 

These commitments – and more – are embedded in the 10 Voter Guarantees in the ballot initiative. These 10 Guarantees are legally binding – Solano County is not allowed to issue any building permits unless California Forever complies with all 10 Guarantees (learn more).

To bring all these things to Solano, the plan calls for changing the General Plan and Zoning for East Solano County in three ways:

• Creating a new Travis Security Zone that almost doubles the security buffer around Travis AFB, where no development is permitted, from 7,900 acres to almost 15,000 acres

• Authorizing the creation of a new community on approximately 17,500 acres (smaller than each of Fairfield, Vacaville, and Vallejo), subject to the new community's compliance with the 10 Guarantees

• Creation of 712-acre Rio Vista Parkland between the new community and Rio Vista, an open space that preserves the unique character of both communities, while creating a shared open space resource with parks, sports facilities, and bike paths.

Created with Solano Residents

The East Solano Plan is the result of extensive community engagement process with Solano County residents, including hundreds of meetings 1-on-1 and in small group meetings, large town halls, mail and phone surveys, and thousands of conversations at the door. This input is reflected in the plan. 

The proposal begins with the creation of a new community, designed to be one of the most walkable and sustainable in the United States, on lands in east Solano County with a total size of approximately 17,500 acres (smaller than each of Fairfield, Vacaville, and Vallejo). 

The new community would be built on pasture lands that were rated as being the worst for agriculture and least ecologically valuable in all of Solano County. The new community entirely avoids the county's most sensitive habitats, including Jepson Prairie, Suisun Marsh, and Cache Slough.

The plan features neighborhoods centered around local shopping streets and schools, with small blocks of row houses and small apartment buildings, where each family can live within a short walk for most daily needs, including schools. The proposal also includes a requirement that at least 4,000 acres (over 20% of the proposed community) will be used for parks, trails, urban ecological habitat, community gardens, and other types of open space. The community is designed to provide a range of transportation alternatives to cars, including walking, biking, and frequent transit service. 

The plan was created by some of the leading planners and designers in America, including both our in-house team and our extended team including SITELAB (urban design), CMG (landscape architecture), Fehr & Peers (transportation), ENGEO (geotech and hazmat), CBG (civil engineering), EKI (water), and many others. To learn more about the vision and design principles for the community, please read this blogpost.

This proposal would create a new economic engine for Solano County. That means more good paying jobs, so people can live and work here, and more county revenue to improve schools, promote public safety, reduce homelessness, and upgrade infrastructure. The ballot initiative incorporates a powerful set of 10 guarantees to ensure the plan delivers on these priorities and will benefit citizens all across Solano County. 

What's the timeline and process for this project?