Gov. Gavin Newsom's office began circulating end-of-session legislation last week that would streamline environmental review for California Forever's proposed Solano County shipyard — but not the sprawling housing development the company wants attached to it. California Forever's answer amounts to an ultimatum: strip out the homes, and the jobs never get built.

The billionaire-backed plan to build a city from scratch in Solano County has spent a year narrowing to its most sellable piece — a shipyard and manufacturing "foundry" pitched as 10,000 jobs in one of the Bay Area's highest-unemployment counties. Now that Sacramento appears willing to fast-track that piece alone, California Forever is refusing the split, tying the industrial jobs it dangles to streamlined approval of the "Suisun Expansion" housing that voters and supervisors have resisted since 2023. The maneuver turns the jobs into leverage for the homes, and it is playing out in the final, low-visibility weeks of the legislative session.

Newsom's office started circulating the proposal last week after weeks of private meetings with the company, county leaders and state legislators, CalMatters reported (external source, opens in a new tab), citing a source directly involved in the negotiations who had reviewed the language. The draft would speed environmental review for the shipyard on the county's Collinsville waterfront while leaving out the residential component — the part of the project that draws the loudest opposition.

California Forever will not take that deal. In a blog post first reported by the North Bay Business Journal (external source, opens in a new tab), the company argued that permitting only the shipyard and foundry would not be a middle ground at all — it would leave those job centers approved on paper but unbuildable in practice. The reasoning is financial. California, unlike other states, has put up no public money for the water, sewer and power the shipyard needs, the company said; private capital will only cover that infrastructure if it is bundled into a bigger development that includes housing. Put plainly, the homes are what pays for the shipyard.

The company leans on Solano's own record — fewer than 1,000 new housing units a year for nearly two decades — to argue that no major manufacturer will locate there without a decades-long, guaranteed supply of workforce homes. Critics hear a familiar pattern. Earlier this year the company put two veteran Democratic power brokers on its payroll — ex-state Senate leaders Darrell Steinberg and Bob Hertzberg, both of whom had a hand in writing the environmental rules the project now wants relaxed — to work Sacramento on its behalf, CalMatters reported in June (external source, opens in a new tab).

The pressure is not new; the paper trail is. County records obtained by CalMatters show California Forever logged at least 25 meetings with officials about the shipyard since December 2025 and reported $150,000 in lobbying spending over the first seven months of 2026. Last September, supervisors were pushed to endorse legislation they had received only hours before the vote. Then-Board Chair Mitch Mashburn voted yes despite open disgust at the process, saying he was holding his nose so the county would at least keep a seat at the table.

Duane Kromm, a former county supervisor and longtime critic, compared the company's compressed deadlines to a high-pressure car sale, telling CalMatters that demanding an immediate up-or-down vote on a project this size was absurd. The county's own spokesperson, Matthew Davis, told the outlet that the intensity and urgency of the lobbying were not typical of Solano's experience. California Forever's Director of Partnerships, Michael Fortney, defended the push, citing the recent departures of employers like Budweiser and Valero, and said the company was "tireless because of what was at stake."

Beneath the tactics, Solano is genuinely split. Union pipe fitter John Kowalski told KQED (external source, opens in a new tab) there is "no real industry here" for workers like him, and the Solano Economic Development Corporation's Chris Rico argued the state hands sports stadiums environmental exemptions, so a manufacturer promising 10,000 jobs deserves the same. Rio Vista Mayor Edwin Okamura said he remains skeptical and was never consulted on the legislation. Sarah Soroken of the Solano Together coalition warned that decisions made behind closed doors risk sidelining residents' health and well-being.

The Legislature adjourns at the end of this month. Whether Sacramento accepts California Forever's all-or-nothing framing — or calls the bluff by advancing the shipyard bill alone — will be settled in a matter of days.