Travis AFB Sustainability Study Report Final Background Report | Page 40
mid‐20th century, new employers arrived in the area, resulting in explosive
growth in Vacaville. The Basic Vegetable Products Company located a
1,000‐worker onion dehydrating facility in Vacaville in 1941, closing in 1986.
Large Bio‐tech companies such as Genentech began locating in the City
beginning in the 1980s.
City of Vacaville
Year Incorporated: 1868
2016 Estimated Population:
Projected 2030 Population:
Major Industry:
Retail 97,667
109,400
With its industry, ease of access, and proximity to the Bay Area, Vacaville
saw its population double between 1940 and 1950. Ongoing freeway
construction and increasing employment in the Bay Area led to Vacaville’s
continued growth through the end of the 20th century and the beginning of
the 21st.
The City of Vacaville is in Solano County, approximately six miles north of
Travis AFB. Vacaville is located on the edge of the Coastal Range that
separates California’s Central Valley from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Interstate 80 runs through the middle of the city, connecting it to the
Bay Area to the southwest, and to the Sacramento metropolitan area to the
northeast. Interstate 505 branches off Interstate 80 and connects to
Interstate 5 to the north. As of the 2010 census, Vacaville had a population
of 92,428, making it the third largest city in Solano County.
Vacaville is governed by a
five‐member City Council, with the
Mayor serving as presiding officer and
is elected separately. Each of these
elected positions serves a four‐year
term.
Source:
http://www.ci.vacaville.ca.us/about‐
us/vacaville‐s‐history
Vacaville was established as a town in 1851, when livestock and wheat
production were the principal economic products in Solano County. The
completion of nearby railroads in the late 1860s provided a way for ranchers
to get their crops to market, but the higher cost of rail transport coupled
with increased competition led to the decline of the area’s wheat industry
during the 1880s. While rail transport had contributed to the decline of
wheat production, the ease of access it provided gave a boost to produce
farming. By the 1890s, Vaca Valley and the foothills of the Vaca Mountains
were covered with orchards, and in 1892, Vacaville was formally
incorporated.
Old Vacaville Town Hall
After peaking in the mid‐1910s, fruit production in the Vacaville area
declined due to drought and soil depletion, competition during the
Great Depression, and overproduction for the World War I war effort. In the
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