\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSuisun City residents are asking city leaders to add an advisory vote to the November ballot regarding the annexation of California Forever’s land, a proposal that has divided the community. A packed room at the Suisun City Council meeting on Tuesday evening saw dozens of residents sharing their thoughts on the project during public comment, as the discussion was not an item on the agenda. In October, city leaders accepted an application from California Forever, a billionaire-backed group, to annex more than 16,000 acres of land. Renderings of the project include plans for housing, a regional jobs center, parks, a swimming facility, and an amphitheater. Some residents are calling for more input on the plan. “We just want people to have a say whether they like the project or not. We want people to be able to vote on it in November,” Nate Huntington with the Solano Together Coalition said. “That would still let the council decide at the end of the day. But it would be a way to check in with residents about how they feel.”City Manager Bret Prebula explained what an advisory vote would look like, saying, “That’s essentially a nonbinding vote that the public would take to basically say yes or no to the project. That’s a rather unique thing.” Prebula noted that the vote would cost taxpayers close to $100,000 and said the city is exploring other ways to gather residents’ input. “We’re looking for ways to create smaller, more comfortable areas. So people of all languages, of all walks of life can get together in their own networks, have a conversation that we guide through, a conversation guide that helps them get elements that we want to know information about, and then they bring that back to the team,” Prebula said. KCRA 3 asked California Forever founder & CEO Jan Sramek about the residents working to get an advisory vote on the ballot. He sent a statement saying, “What we\u2019re seeing tonight is the next generation of Suisun City and Solano County taking ownership of their community’s future. These are working women and men who showed up in force tonight fighting for jobs close to home and homes they can afford. We\u2019re proud to stand alongside them as we build together.”Residents remain divided over the project. “Jobs, jobs, high-paying union jobs. We’re all about that,” Cary Leider, District Rep for the Operating Engineers Local 3, said. “There’s going to be huge environmental impacts of this project,\u201d Huntington said The city manager said the draft environmental impact report is expected to be released to the public in late July or early August.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tSUISUN CITY, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Suisun City residents are asking city leaders to add an advisory vote to the November ballot regarding the annexation of California Forever’s land, a proposal that has divided the community. <\/p>\n
A packed room at the Suisun City Council meeting on Tuesday evening saw dozens of residents sharing their thoughts on the project during public comment, as the discussion was not an item on the agenda. <\/p>\n
In October, city leaders accepted an application from California Forever<\/a>, a billionaire-backed group, to annex more than 16,000 acres of land. Renderings of the project include plans for housing, a regional jobs center, parks, a swimming facility, and an amphitheater. <\/p>\n Some residents are calling for more input on the plan. <\/p>\n “We just want people to have a say whether they like the project or not. We want people to be able to vote on it in November,” Nate Huntington with the Solano Together Coalition said. “That would still let the council decide at the end of the day. But it would be a way to check in with residents about how they feel.”<\/p>\n City Manager Bret Prebula explained what an advisory vote would look like, saying, “That’s essentially a nonbinding vote that the public would take to basically say yes or no to the project. That’s a rather unique thing.” <\/p>\n Prebula noted that the vote would cost taxpayers close to $100,000 and said the city is exploring other ways to gather residents’ input. <\/p>\n “We’re looking for ways to create smaller, more comfortable areas. So people of all languages, of all walks of life can get together in their own networks, have a conversation that we guide through, a conversation guide that helps them get elements that we want to know information about, and then they bring that back to the team,” Prebula said. <\/p>\n KCRA 3 asked California Forever founder & CEO Jan Sramek about the residents working to get an advisory vote on the ballot. <\/p>\n He sent a statement saying, “What we\u2019re seeing tonight is the next generation of Suisun City and Solano County taking ownership of their community’s future. These are working women and men who showed up in force tonight fighting for jobs close to home and homes they can afford. We\u2019re proud to stand alongside them as we build together.”<\/p>\n Residents remain divided over the project. <\/p>\n “Jobs, jobs, high-paying union jobs. We’re all about that,” Cary Leider, District Rep for the Operating Engineers Local 3, said. <\/p>\n “There’s going to be huge environmental impacts of this project,\u201d Huntington said <\/p>\n The city manager said the draft environmental impact report is expected to be released to the public in late July or early August.<\/p>\n See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Suisun City residents are asking city leaders to add an advisory vote to the November ballot regarding the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[120492,5533,7,5961,120493,9,8,41915,179,4194,1510,61642,592,3230,1506,37902,288,5963,120494,23611,8843],"class_list":{"0":"post-279785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-advisory-vote","9":"tag-annexation","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-california-forever","12":"tag-california-forever-annexation","13":"tag-california-headlines","14":"tag-california-news","15":"tag-city-leader","16":"tag-community","17":"tag-job","18":"tag-land","19":"tag-november-ballot","20":"tag-people","21":"tag-plan","22":"tag-project","23":"tag-public-comment","24":"tag-resident","25":"tag-suisun-city","26":"tag-suisun-city-resident","27":"tag-tonight","28":"tag-way"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}