Ever since shelving their plans to create a new city out of whole cloth in eastern Solano County because the political winds against it were too strong, the group still known as California Forever is apparently looking into turning some waterfront property on the Delta into a shipbuilding facility.

You know things are kind of all over the place when, in about 18 months time, plans being made for a newly created, utopian city for people who want to drive 45 minutes to get to civilization have pivoted to include a shipbuilding hub. But as the Chronicle is reporting Friday, the method behind the madness here is that the Trump administration is talking about tax incentives for shipbuilding, and there could be federal infrastructure funds on offer as well.

The last we heard from the group in January, it seemed like they were cozying up to the city council of Suisun City, the smallest city in the county, with the possible goal of getting the city to annex some or all of the land they had assembled — even though most of it isn't adjacent to Suisun City. This was because they were thwarted, at least in the near term, by the County's 40-year-old Orderly Growth Ordinance, which confines new development to the envelopes of already established cities in the county.

Now we're learning that about 1,400 acres of the 50,000 acres of land that the cabal of billionaires assembled over the last few years are on or near the waterfront on the Sacramento River Delta, near the tiny unincorporated town of Collinsville. Update: The group has clarified to SFist that the city-building plan is still on the table, and the shipyard would be in addition to this.

See Collinsville, south of the proposed city development area, across the river from Pittsburg.

This is not really near the area where the group was planning to build their unnamed city — which was north of Highway 12, on either side of Highway 113, as seen in this south-facing aerial rendering from last March.

Highway 12 was the southern limit of their original plan

The group put out a statement to the Chronicle confirming their shift in plan.

"Solano County is uniquely positioned to answer the call for rebuilding our nation’s naval power," they said. "Developing shipbuilding, ship repair, and related maritime industries would revive the Delta’s maritime legacy and drive economic revitalization across Solano County, benefiting locations such as Mare Island in Vallejo."

California Forever tells the paper that they are still "very early in the process" of conceiving this new project, but they point directly to Donald Trump making shipbuilding a priority.

"We deeply respect California’s and the Delta’s maritime heritage. Our state and region have always risen to support American defense during critical times. This call was recently renewed through bipartisan efforts to rebuild our nation’s shipbuilding capabilities, including the proposed bipartisan SHIPS for America Act and the new Office of Shipbuilding in the White House."

Given the huge environmental impacts that a new shipbuilding operation would have on the already environmentally sensitive Delta region, this also seems like it will be a heavy lift.

But, the area is apparently already zoned for shipbuilding, heavy industry, and maritime terminal use, and they cite a 1989 plan called the "Collinsville Montezuma Hills Area Development Study" that suggested this use for the area.

The Chronicle got one damning comment, albeit from a biotech professor at Solano Community College, saying that the proposal "randomly falls outside any comprehensive planning process and seems designed specifically and solely to allow billionaires to make more billions," and adding, "It also seems to symbolize where we are as a country. We were once a nation of policy, planning, analysis and law. We have become a country of whims, personal favors and efforts that benefit special interests."

We'll have to wait and see where this goes, but no doubt the billionaires who threw down money for all that land — including Laurene Powell Jobs, Marc Andreesen, and Michael Moritz — might like to see some return on their investment at some point.

Previously: California Forever Sees New Way to Get Around Voter Approval For Their Solano County City-From-Scratch

Top photo by famingjia inventor/Unsplash