Rio Vista Mayor slams Suisun City, California Forever
Rio Vista Mayor Edwin Okamura accused California Forever of spreading "personal attacks and inaccurate claims" when responding to Rio Vista City Manager Kristina Miller's concerns about the possibility of data centers in the Suisun Expansion Specific Plans.
"Specifically, it was suggested that we were upset Suisun City received the entire project, so we went on the attack," he said in a post on Facebook Tuesday evening. "Fact: We did request that the entire project come to us when it became evident that Suisun City intended to accept the proposal in its entirety without any noticeable changes to the original city proposal."
Rio Vista expressed concerns about the impacts of the project for well over a year, Okamura said, but they were ignored by California Forever. The city only arrived at the decision to request the annexation of the whole project when talks with Suisun City, seeking two mutually beneficial annexations, broke down.
"We simply were not being heard," he said.
Okamura further claimed Miller's statement was intended to gain leverage over California Forever over the long term. Without a role in the project, he said, the city would have no ability to shape its scope in the future.
"Our intent was to respect the Orderly Growth Initiative while each gaining valuable economic benefit," he said. "We respected the process and did not expect our partner to give in so easily. Unfortunately, Suisun City relinquished its leverage and accepted the 22,000-acre project exactly as it was proposed by California Forever."
Then, Okamura said discussions between Rio Vista and California Forever are ongoing, and they continue to raise concerns about battery storage, data centers, traffic impacts, water and solar energy. He accused the company of prioritizing the Suisun Expansion Specific Plans over infill developments that it proposed in Rio Vista.
"During these one-directional, good-faith discussions, we were told it was ‘too early' or in so many words, not to worry about it," he said. "I would suggest that any city manager or mayor who doesn't worry about it is not competent."
Okamura said if he were mayor of Suisun City and seeking "quick fix solutions," he would not be "overly concerned" about pushing negative environmental impacts on Rio Vista.
Miller's letter did claim that California Forever's Suisun Expansion Plan could allow data centers to be placed on about 85 percent of the plan, but the developer said the community's entitlements will have binding water and electricity limits fundamentally incompatible with data centers.
"The idea that the Suisun Expansion could be a data center project is inaccurate," the statement reads. "We have repeatedly committed in writing and in the Suisun Expansion Specific Plan to bring tens of thousands of local manufacturing jobs and tens of thousands of attainably-priced homes to Suisun City, and we'll continue to do so through the Environmental Impact Report and Development Agreement."
California Forever called Miller's emails in December, and her statement "attempts by a rogue City Manager to damage the legitimate exploration process of the Suisun Expansion Plan, without public approvals for such actions by the Rio Vista City Council."
"After signing a reimbursement agreement with Rio Vista earlier this year to explore expansion, in which no such concerns were raised, we had hoped to work together collaboratively," the statement reads.
Suisun City Mayor Alma Hernandez and City Manager Bret Prebula released a joint statement Wednesday reiterating that their goals are the fiscal survival of Suisun City, economic development and expanding their community responsibly.
"We executed an Exclusive Reimbursement Agreement so that the developer, not Suisun City taxpayers, funds the cost of evaluating the proposal," the mayor and city manager wrote. "The 22,873-acre application followed. Every step was on a public agenda and every document in the process is publicly available."
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