"Their intention isn't to grow olive trees," said Sarah Donnelly, a city councilmember for Rio Vista. "It feels nefarious to need all of the land to the point where you're going to sue them to intimidate to sell to you - those aren't farmers.""There seems like there's something larger in the works," Donnelly said.
Rep. John Garamendi is working to change that with new language in the National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA that would streamline communication so the proper authorities can review these cases.
"A company in China was acquiring land around that base and wanted to build a 400-foot silo that could look directly into the base... and we were like whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on there?" said Garamendi.