California YIMBY group endorses Silicon Valley billionaire’s California Forever project

California YIMBY, one of the largest pro-housing groups in the state of California, announced its support for California Forever’s East Solano Plan Wednesday morning.

The group, while noting some concerns with the plan, still supports the vision overall. The decision marks one of the first statewide groups to support the Solano County-based initiative.

“To the extent that the East Solano Plan is a welcome break from this status quo approach to building, we think it deserves a chance,” the statement reads. “As proposed, this project addresses many of the mistakes made by previous large-scale greenfield developments.”

California YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard used to describe pro-housing and growth advocates) lobbies the state Legislature to create more housing-friendly legislation across the state. Founded in 2017, the group touts 18 bills they have helped pass into law.

With 200,000 Californians currently without a home and reports indicating that the Bay Area needs to add as many as 441,176 homes by 2031, the statement explains, that California YIMBY has decided that the need for housing outweighs the environmental uncertainties.

“The Golden State is in a rough way,” the statement reads. “But we believe that our best days lie ahead. When faced with housing shortages in the past, our leaders took bold actions to increase the supply of new housing. For this reason, California YIMBY is proud to support the East Solano Plan, a project that will — at full build-out — provide homes for as many as 400,000 Californians and provide a template for sustainable growth.”

Uniquely situated between Sacramento and San Fransisco, the statement notes that California Forever will be able to connect to existing rail and highway infrastructure. It also praises the mixed-use design and higher walkability of the area than previous greenfield developments. The organization claims that this project could not only be innovative in its own right but if successful, could set the tone for the future of California housing.

“This project has been designed by some of the brightest minds in California planning, and it shows,” the release reads. “If successful, this project could set the tone for a much more sustainable pattern of urban growth over the next century.”

Regardless of the statewide impact, however, California YIMBY notes that the ball is currently in Solano County’s court.

“The future of this project is up to the residents of Solano County,” the statement reads. “They are right to expect strong guarantees and generous community benefits. We applaud the team’s commitment to provide $500 million in community benefits — including $400 million in down payment assistance and $70 million in scholarships and small business grants to current Solano County residents — and invest $200 million in Solano County’s seven existing downtowns.”

Not all voices in the YIMBY movement are aligned with California Forever on the East Solano Plan, with former California YIMBY Chief Operating Officer Melissa Breach coming out firmly against the plan on the social media platform X (formeryl Twitter).

“This is disappointing and short-sighted,” Breach wrote of the California YIMBY endorsement. “Before leaving in April, I spent five years helping grow and lead (California YIMBY) — building YIMBY power, advocating for infill housing, and making building homes near jobs, transit, and community resources faster and cheaper. This is not that.”

Breach went on in the thread to call the project “just sprawl” and “utopian”, calling for California Forever to invest in existing Solano communities. Breach also alleges that this endorsement will not move the needle for voters in Solano County, but could create infighting within the YIMBY movement as a whole.

“Why risk creating a political wedge inside the YIMBY movement at a time when our power is growing? New cities may be inevitable as California grows, but where and how we build them matters,” she wrote. “This particular project is comically ill-advised.”