"I think it was clearly a very controversial process we went through, and I think it was a bit too quick on our part," Sramek said. "There's this really fine balance between process and delivering results."
Even before California Forever first unveiled its proposed new city last fall, the company was facing an uphill battle wooing would-be voters, who needed to sign off on the plan. Mystery and mistrust had clouded the company for six years as it quietly spent nearly $1 billion to purchase more than 60,000 acres of farmland.
That distrust was on display during California Forever's first town hall meetings held late last year. Sramek faced a barrage of questions about his background in Silicon Valley's tech industry and how that would influence the project. He had intended for the meetings to foster productive discussions about what residents wanted out of the project. Instead, angry opponents heckled him.
Anna Kirsch, a Vallejo resident with the group Artists Against Billionaires, immediately distrusted the company and its plan. "It showed that they had something to hide because of the secrecy," she said.
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