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Gov. Gavin Newsom lamented the Solano County Board of Supervisors’ rejection of a controversial plan to create a shipyard in the Collinsville area that he had backed as a potential solution to create new jobs and spur economic development in the outer Bay Area community.
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On Tuesday, the board voted to reject potential state legislation pushed by the billionaire-backed group California Forever that would have allowed the group to use an 18-year-old environmental plan in its bid to create a shipyard on 1,350 acres near Suisun Marsh.
Supervisor Mitch Mashburn said the Governor’s Office, who led the discussions, had “rushed” the process, leading him and Supervisors John Vasquez and Cassandra James to vote against it.
Assemblymember Lori Wilson, D-Suisun, and Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, D-West Sacramento, who represent the area in the Legislature, said they would not introduce the legislation before the end of the session next week.
“They delayed it, but delay can be denial in the context of the competitive landscape that’s out there,” Newsom told reporters Wednesday during a press conference in Vallejo of the board’s vote.
He cited Solano County’s unemployment rate, which is the highest of the nine Bay Area counties.
“It’s running out the clock here. We got to step up our game in this state. We got to step up our game,” Newsom said. “You want to compete? The world we invented is competing against us, and it’s tough out there.”
California Forever first began buying up land in 2017 with the hopes of building a new city in the outer Bay Area. They pivoted to a potential shipyard after scrapping plans for a 2024 local rezoning ballot measure.
One potential shipyard client, the Texas-based autonomous ship builder Saronic, ultimately opted to stay in the Lone Star State after officials there gave them $211 billion in tax abatements to relocate to the Port of Brownsville.
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Newsom called the “massive subsidies” a “race to the bottom” for Texas. Ultimately, he said, Solano County would “inevitably” and “ultimately embrace” the need to build something.
Dozens of community residents testified during an almost five-hour hearing leading up to Tuesday’s vote.
The majority said they opposed the shipyard plan for reasons ranging from environmental concerns and anti-data center views to opposition to California Forever, whose chief investors are major tech titans with ties to Newsom.
Newsom said he was not “tied to any particular project,” but wanted to see Solano County’s economic fortunes turn around as he has watched it lose major employers in recent years like the Jelly Belly factory, the Budweiser brewery and the Mare Island dry dock.
“I’m attaching myself directionally, and it’s very consistent with everything I’ve been promoting and delivering the last few years with the Legislature,” he said. “I’m just hopeful on this and many other projects, we can really start to focus on the key question of time to delivering answers and ultimately projects.”
Wilson said there were “no plans” for her or Cabaldon to introduce legislation before next week, when the legislative session ends.
“But the Board of Supervisors did mention during their meeting and voted accordingly that they would like to continue to work on that, and they would work on in the fall,” she told reporters. “So I look forward to engaging them in the fall, which is the time that we do that type of engagements on bills that we’ll introduce next year.”
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This story was originally published August 26, 2026 at 3:35 PM.