Californians, beware. A multi-millionaire has been granted permission to collect petition signatures in support of his belief that California should be separated into six separate states, UK MailOnline reported.
Claiming that people living in California would be better served by a more localized government, 55-year-old Tim Draper called for his plan to be put to the vote.
Draper, a venture capitalist, said the Golden state is too large to govern efficiently.
The technology investor has proposed splitting the state into six: San Diego and Orange County would become South California, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara would make up West California, the Sacramento area would be known as North California, and Bakersfield, Fresno and Stockton would make up Central California, UK MailOnline reported.
San Francisco and San Jose would make up Silicon Valley, while Jefferson would be formed by Redding and Eureka.
Home to 38 million people, California, the most populous state in the U.S., could boast to be the world's eighth largest economy if it becomes its own country.
Taking in almost 164,000 square miles of coastline, mountain ranges, several huge cities such as Los Angeles and San Diego, and desert, California is also the third largest state by area.
According to UK MailOnline, "Were his plan to be implemented, Draper, who made his name and some of his fortune investing in Skype and Hotmail, would find himself living in the Silicon Valley state as he lives in Atherton - located between San Francisco and San Jose, and ranked number two on Forbes magazine's most expensive zip codes."
Calling for changes, Draper filed a ballot initiative in December and said that social and economic changes across the state has made it difficult to govern by the state's capital Sacramento.
"It is more and more difficult for Sacramento to keep up with the social issues from the various regions of California," he told ABC News. "With six Californias, people will be closer to their state governments, and states can get a refresh."
However, critics of the scheme have raised concerns about changes to issues such as agricultural policies and the voting system, as well as how the state's assets, and problems, would be shared out, UK MailOnline reported.
Secretary of State of California Debra Bowen has now allowed Draper to start collecting the signatures he would need to put his plan to a ballot when Californians vote in November 2016, when the next Presidential election will be held.
Before July 18, he would need to find 807,615 registered voters to back his proposals. Having been given a deadline of 150 days to submit the signatures to county elections officials, the figure is 10 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2010 election.
"If the federal government approves the proposed creation of six new states, all tax collections and spending by the existing State of California would end, with its assets and liabilities divided among the new states," Bowen said in a statement on her official website.
"Decisions by appointed commissioners and elected leaders would determine how taxes, public spending, and other public policies would change for the new states and their local governments."
The Congress would be authorized to decide the new states' inclusion into the union of California if the petition did end up voting for the change, UK MailOnline reported.
