In a rural part of California’s Solano County, between the Bay Area cities and Sacramento, rumors have been circulating for years about “the Flanneries,” a mysterious company that is buying up mostly vacant land.
At a shooting range in Birds Landing, an unincorporated community accessible by a two-lane highway or dirt road through grassy hills covered with wind turbines—many over 200 feet tall—an employee wondered why anyone would want to buy land in the peaceful environment.
“There are sheep farms, there are cattle farms and guys doing hay and safflower farming,” said the worker, Ashley Morrill, 40. “That’s what they do. There is cattle and things to feed the cattle.”
Solano County’s rural roots are still central to an area where a company backed by tech industry billionaires has been buying up land to create a city of the future they envision. That company, Flannery Associates, has pledged about $900 million to secure thousands of acres of farmland, court documents show.
The towns of Vallejo, Fairfield and Vacaville, home to the majority of Solano County’s 450,000 residents, are not far away. But this part of the county, which totals about 900 square miles, has more in common with the farms of California’s Central Valley than with the corporate campuses of Silicon Valley. And the prospect of major changes has unnerved some families who have lived in the area for generations.
Along the two-lane road a few miles from the mountain range is Collinsville, an unincorporated community that is essentially a mile-long, cul-de-sac with a dozen homes, farms, and silos lining it. It borders a swamp near the mouth of the Sacramento River. Property owners in the area said the mysterious Flanneries had approached them, and some who left abruptly had apparently sold their land.
On a hot Sunday afternoon, as the air began to smell swampy, Lacey Miles helped her retired father, Tom, unload his car in the driveway of his single-family home. Across the street, a recreational vehicle with a yellowed “For Sale” sign stood amid five-foot-tall haygrass.
Mr Miles, 71, said he was concerned the buyers were trying to change the countryside he had lived and enjoyed for decades. The only sound behind him was the low hum of wind turbines spinning a few miles away.
“That’s why we’re here, the quiet community,” he said. “I love it here.”
Mrs. Miles, 42, a homeowner, lives a few miles away. She had heard on Facebook about the plans to build a “private town” and opposed the changes it would entail.
“I moved here to escape the city,” she said. She grew up near Collinsville, then moved and returned fourteen years ago with her husband to raise children in the countryside.
Ms Miles said those who had not sold their land would likely resist any political attempt to establish a new city. But she said with a sigh, “Anything is possible if you have money.”
In nearby Rio Vista, a city of about 10,000, most residents who spoke to DailyExpertNews knew that a coalition of Silicon Valley investors had bought up farmland outside the city.
The mysterious buyers have been the subject of debate in the city in recent years, with theories ranging from more development for the wind turbines that dot the surrounding hills, to an attempt to build another Silicon Valley to some foreign interests doing who knows what.
Downtown Rio Vista was around the corner from a tractor shop, a recreational vehicle repair shop, and a riverside walkway where men fish from early morning. It was a few block piece with American flags and a street art project with differently painted ceramic sheep.
Pickups and sedans were parked in the spots along the road. A few drove down the street playing country music with the windows down. Older people in cowboy hats gathered at Raul’s Striper Cafe, which is filled with 1950s memorabilia.
More residents gathered at Foster’s Bighorn, a watering hole with hundreds of stuffed animal heads on the wall, including a moose, buffalo, giraffe, lion and snow leopard.
Some residents said they were relieved to know the identities of the land buyers. Others were still concerned, not wanting the area to be overrun with techies. A bartender at Foster’s Bighorn said that whatever this new type of town was, it would price its current residents—just like all those towns in the Bay Area to the south.
