Farmers and landowners are accusing Flannery Associates, a company backed by tech billionaires, of using “pressure tactics” to buy land for a new city the group is planning to build in Solano County. The allegations were made public last week in a report summarizing a conference between the two parties about an ongoing lawsuit, which Flannery Associates filed in May.
“Once litigation was filed, the tactics were clear,” the landowners’ defense reads. “Flannery would use the expense of litigation to drive the farmers to surrender. The farmers' only offense was their desire not to sell land their families had, in some cases, owned for generations.” Where the residents told the story of a powerful group preying on families, Flannery’s attorneys painted a picture of wealthy conspirators, intent on bleeding the company dry.