Travis AFB Sustainability Study Report Final Background Report | Page 38
City of Fairfield
Year Incorporated: 1903
2016 Estimated Population:
Projected 2030 Population:
Major Industry:
Food Manufacturing 112,637
124,300
The City of Fairfield is in central Solano County and is the home of
Travis AFB. It is generally considered the midpoint between the cities of
Sacramento and San Francisco and is accessible via Interstate 80. It serves as
Solano County’s county seat and had a 2010 population of 105,321. The city
is surrounded by undeveloped or sparsely developed hills on its western and
northern borders and grazing and prairie grasslands to the east and
northeast. To the south are Suisun City and the Suisun Marsh, the largest
remaining wetland around San Francisco Bay.
Fairfield City Hall from Lake Side
In the past few decades, it has also become a major business and retail
center for Solano County. Anheuser‐Busch opened a brewery in Fairfield in
1976, one of 12 Anheuser‐Busch breweries in the US. The Jelly Belly Candy
Company constructed its company headquarters in Fairfield in 1986. These
developments, along with the city’s natural amenities and abundant land,
helped grow the population of Fairfield from 3,100 people in 1950 to
105,321 in 2010.
Native Americans were the first known settlers of the area, in the Rockville
and Green Valley areas. In 1837 the Native American Chief Solano received
the Rancho Suisun Mexican land grant. This grant eventually came into the
hands of a clipper ship captain from Fairfield, Connecticut named Robert H.
Waterman. He parcelled out the town in 1856 and entered Fairfield in the
running for Solano County seat in 1858 and beat out Benicia for the title. As
an inducement he granted 16 acres of land for the construction of county
buildings. In 1903 Fairfield was incorporated as a city.
The City is governed by a five‐member City Council. Each of these elected
positions serves four‐year terms.
Source: City of Fairfield General Plan
Over the decades, the city’s character has gradually evolved, beginning as a
small farming‐related community. The city began to take on the identity of a
military town when military operations began at the Fairfield‐Suisun Army
Air Base (now Travis AFB) in 1943. Travis AFB was annexed to Fairfield in
1966.
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Community Profile