A historic cattle ranch in California’s Solano County has been a target of a secretive billionaire-backed group that’s been buying up large swaths of land to create a new city northeast of San Francisco. The latest offer of $17 million, made in mid-July, by Flannery Associates LLC was for about 950 acres at a property known as Petersen Ranch, according to term sheets, proposals and emails obtained by Bloomberg News through the California Public Records Act. It was turned down by the local water agency, which owns the land.

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