In a rural slice of California’s Solano County, between the cities of the Bay Area and Sacramento, rumors have been swirling for years about “the Flanneries,” a thriller firm shopping for up largely undeveloped land.

At a capturing vary in Birds Landing, an unincorporated neighborhood accessible by a two-lane freeway or a gravel street by grassy foothills coated in wind generators — lots of them over 200 toes tall — an worker questioned why anybody would need to purchase land within the quiet space.

“There’s sheep farms, there’s cattle ranches, and guys that are doing hay and safflower farming,” mentioned the worker, Ashley Morrill, 40. “That’s what they do. There’s livestock, and things to feed the livestock.”

Solano County’s rural roots are nonetheless entrance and heart in an space the place an organization backed by tech trade billionaires has been shopping for up land to create what they think about to be a metropolis of the long run. That firm, Flannery Associates, has dedicated roughly $900 million to safe 1000’s of acres of farmland, court docket paperwork present.

The cities of Vallejo, Fairfield and Vacaville, that are house to the vast majority of Solano County’s 450,000 individuals, aren’t very far-off. But this a part of the county, which covers about 900 sq. miles in all, has extra in widespread with the farms of California’s Central Valley than the company campuses of Silicon Valley. And the prospect of huge adjustments has unnerved some households which have lived within the space for generations.

Down the two-lane street a number of miles from the vary is Collinsville, an unincorporated neighborhood that’s basically a mile-long, dead-end avenue with a few dozen homes, farms and silos alongside it. It backs right into a marsh close to the mouth of the Sacramento River. Property house owners within the neighborhood mentioned the mysterious Flanneries had approached them, and some who’ve left abruptly apparently offered their land.

On a sizzling Sunday afternoon, because the air started to scent swampy, Lacey Miles was serving to her retired father, Tom, unload his automotive within the driveway of his single-family house. Across the road was a leisure car with a yellowing signal that learn “For Sale” amid five-foot-tall hay grass.

Mr. Miles, 71, mentioned he was involved that the consumers have been making an attempt to vary the countryside that he had lived in and loved for many years. The solely sound behind him was the low hum of wind generators turning a number of miles away.

“That’s why we’re here, the quiet community,” he mentioned. “Love it out here.”

Ms. Miles, 42, who owns a housekeeping enterprise, lives a number of miles away. She had heard in regards to the plans to construct a “private city” on Facebook, and was against the adjustments it will convey.

“I moved out here to escape the city,” she mentioned. She had grown up close to Collinsville, then moved away and got here again 14 years in the past together with her husband to boost youngsters within the rural space.

Ms. Miles mentioned the individuals who hadn’t offered their land have been more likely to be against any political push to create a brand new city. But she mentioned with a sigh, “Anything is possible when you have money.”

In close by Rio Vista, a city of about 10,000 individuals, most residents who spoke to The New York Times have been conscious {that a} coalition of Silicon Valley buyers had been shopping for up farmland outdoors city.

The thriller consumers had been a topic of dialogue within the city for the previous few years, with theories starting from extra growth for the wind generators that dot the encompassing hills to an try to construct one other Silicon Valley to some overseas pursuits doing who is aware of what.

Downtown Rio Vista was proper across the nook from a tractor store, a leisure car restore store and a walkway alongside the river that males fish from beginning within the early morning. It was a stretch of some blocks lined with American flags and a avenue artwork venture with otherwise painted ceramic sheep.

Pickup vehicles and sedans have been parked within the areas alongside the street. A couple of drove down the road enjoying nation music with the home windows down. Older individuals sporting cowboy hats gathered in Raul’s Striper Cafe, which is crammed with Fifties memorabilia.

More residents gathered at Foster’s Bighorn, a watering gap displaying tons of of mounted animal heads on the wall, together with a moose, a buffalo, a giraffe, a lion and a snow leopard.

Some residents mentioned they have been relieved to know the identities of the land consumers. Others have been nonetheless involved, and didn’t need the realm to be flooded with techies. A bartender at Foster’s Bighorn mentioned that no matter this new sort of metropolis was, it will worth present residents out — loads like all these Bay Area cities to the south.