A secret group which bought 52,000 acres of land around a California air base has sent locals a survey gauging support for a mysterious ‘new city with thousands of homes’.
The latest development in the shadowy acquisition around Travis Air Force Base comes as Congressman John Garamendi warns the anonymous group of investors, known as Flannery Associates, could pose a risk to national security.
Meanwhile, local Mayor Catherine Moy said she knows nothing about the group – or who sent the poll to Fairfield city residents by text, phone and online.
Public records show since 2018 Flannery Associates has invested over $800million on land surrounding the air base, which sits beside the city in Solano County, 50 miles northeast of San Francisco.
Families who owned the land previously said they didn’t want to sell it, and the ambiguous investors bought it at hugely inflated prices.
A secret group which bought 52,000 acres of land around a California air base has now sent locals a survey gauging support for a mysterious ‘new city with thousands of homes’. Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif. (pictured) says the group poses a national security risk
local Mayor Catherine Moy said she knows nothing about Flannery Associates – and their poll to Fairfield city residents regarding proposals to build a new city came as a surprise to officials
Public records show ‘Flannery Associates’ has invested more than $800 million on around 52,000 acres of land surrounding the Travis Air Force base since 2018
This week, officials confirmed residents in the 120,000-strong city of Fairfield were sent a survey from a polling website via text message, while others said they received calls.
The survey is extensive and appears to offer the first glimpse of what Flannery Associates plans to do with the Bay Area land.
It pitches a vision for a new city with a ‘college town feel’ comprising new schools, housing and restaurants, and an emphasis on green transport.
The poll says the idea could be solidified through a ballot in Solano County next year, according to SFGate which has been sent screenshots of the poll.
‘This project would include a new city with tens of thousands of new homes, a large solar energy farm, orchards with over a million new trees, and over ten thousand acres of new parks and open space,’ the survey explains.
It then presents a list of proposals for the financing and operations of the new city, and asks Solano County residents to choose which would persuade them to support the plans.
Their options for each range from ‘much more likely’ to back the new city, to ‘no impact on support’.
Proposals include giving local people ‘priority and downpayment assistance to buy or lease homes’, and replacing its current aqueduct with a modernized version.
Other proposals included the city construction be funded entirely by private sector money, while being led by ‘a group of architects and planners interested in building livable and sustainable communities – not typical developers’.
But residents aren’t convinced – with one local, George Kennedy, telling NBC Bay Area: ‘It just doesn’t pass the smell test to me’.
Officials agree – with the Mayor and Congressman for the area raising concerns about the potential for whoever is behind Flannery Associates to use their territory for interference at the air base.
‘We need that land around Travis Air Force Base protected’, Fairfield Mayor Moy told NBC Bay Area.
‘It’s over 50,000 acres of land – they’re the largest landholder in Solano County now. They (Flannery Associates) want to build a new city but they still haven’t talked to anybody here.
‘They have plenty of land for a city – but they’re in for a fight… I’m asking them to call me – let’s talk. This is not the way to go about making friends.’
Travis Air Force base, around 50 miles northeast of San Francisco, is a strategically significant base that serves as a ‘gateway’ to the Pacific Ocean
The base houses large transport aircraft used for refueling smaller planes and sending aid and munitions around the world – including to Ukraine via Poland
Longtime Democrat Rep for the region John Garamendi, 78, previously described the air base as an ‘essential gateway to the Pacific’ and a conduit for ‘a great deal of munitions that are going to Ukraine’ via Poland.
It is also the busiest transit airport for the US Air Force – and Garamendi said the FBI and Treasury are now involved in probes into its new neighbors, who he believes are linked to China.
The Congressman for California’s 8th district told NBC Bay Area: ‘The bottom-line question is: who the hell are these people? We still don’t know.
‘It’s very concerning – the land that they have purchased which is right up against the fence on three sides of the base, positioning whoever is there to be in a place to gain intelligence or information, or possibly to disrupt operations.’
Garamendi said it would ‘certainly be possible’ for ‘an enemy’ to ‘monitor, listen in to the communications or possibly disrupt the flow of equipment’ from the adjacent plot.
‘It’s very concerning the land that they have purchased is right up against the fence,’ he said.
Garamendi previously said families who sold their land to Flannery told him they didn’t want to sell in the first place.
Although there is no evidence Flannery is linked to China, the Congressman said he has ‘deep suspicions’, partly because the acquisition is reminiscent of a much smaller purchase by China-based food produced Fufeng Group last year.
Longtime Democrat Rep for the region John Garamendi, 78, said the FBI and Treasury are now involved in probes into its new neighbors, who he believes are linked to China
In North Dakota land purchased by the Chinese Fufeng Group is 20 minutes, approximately 16 miles, from the Grand Forks Air Force Base
The mystery around Travis is reminiscent of the much smaller purchase last year of 300 acres of farmland in North Dakota by a company with links to China
Fufeng Group bought 300 acres of farmland in North Dakota just minutes from another Air Force base, raising the suspicions of military officers, national security experts and lawmakers.
It planned to build a corn-milling plant on its new land in Grand Forks, just 20 minutes from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, where some of the nation’s most sensitive drone technology is housed.
A 2019 report from the US Department of Agriculture showed China owned at least 192,000 acres of US agricultural land worth over $1.9billion.
Though Canada, for example, owns far more US agricultural land, a 2018 USDA report showed China’s agricultural holdings in the US and other counties had increased tenfold since 2009.
An attorney representing Flannery has said the group is controlled by US citizens and that 97 percent of its capital comes from American investors – with the remaining investments coming from British and Irish citizens.
Nonetheless, after eight months of investigation the Air Force’s ‘Foreign Investment Risk Review Office’ is yet to identify even one person that is part of the group.
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