Pacheco, California

Pacheco is a census-designated place (CDP) in Contra Costa County, California. The population was 4,183 at the 2020 census. It is bounded by Martinez to the north and west, Concord to the east, and Pleasant Hill to the south.

History

The town was laid out in 1857 by Dr. J. H. Carothers and named for Salvio Pacheco, grantee of the Rancho Monte del Diablo Mexican land grant. A post office operated at Pacheco from 1859 to 1913 and from 1955 to the present.

Pacheco was briefly a prosperous commercial center. During this period, Pacheco Slough was deep enough to receive ocean-based shipping. From 1851 to nearly 1873, Pacheco was the county’s commercial center: the shipping port for the grain grown in the Ygnacio, San Ramon and Tassajara valleys, with warehouses, a flour mill and shops along the creek. Walnut Creek, (then known as Pacheco Creek), then flowed deep and free into Suisun Bay. For over 20 years, Pacheco was a major shipping port for central Contra Costa County.Megaflood & Megadrought - How They Changed Contra Costa By William E. Mero
from cocohistory.org accessed September 6, 2018

The destruction of Pacheco’s Walnut Creek shipping channel occurred gradually over many years and for many reasons. Man-made ecologic damage eventually combined with a series of fires and floods, as well as an earthquake, destroyed the town and filled the Slough with silt during the 1860s, to ruin Pacheco's growing prosperity just as similar ones had done to the great classic ports of Ephesus and Troy. Pacheco was subsequently depopulated by the attraction of the nearby town of Todos Santos, later to be known as Concord.

Annexation

In January 2011 the Martinez City Council voted to annex those portions of Pacheco north of California State Route 4. In September 2011, Martinez reached a tax sharing deal to pave the way forward for the annexation. In March 2012, sufficient protests were registered to force an election on the issue. In August 2012, the Martinez Police were mobilized to convince the voters to agree to the proposal.

As part of the annexation, Martinez would take over the management of the new Pacheco transit hub.

In August 2012 North Pacheco rejected annexation. Residents and property owners voted 40-39 against becoming part of Martinez. The 111-acre area remains unincorporated, governed by the County Board of Supervisors.

Opponents of the annexation called it a "bad deal for all" on a website created to oppose the proposal. The site claimed that annexing Pacheco would be too costly for Martineza city already suffering a deficit, and that property taxes would go up for residents and businesses. The ''Contra Costa Times'' reported that annexation of an area along Interstate 680 from Highway 4 north to the Burlington-Northern Santa Fe railroad crossing was approved by the Contra Costa County Local Area Formation Commission earlier that year. LAFCO's Executive Officer Lou Ann Texeira said that commissioners would have to take action to terminate the annexation at the September 12 meeting. City leaders say that the North Pacheco gateway area offers the potential for profit-making development. The Martinez city council scheduled another vote on the issue, possibly with a larger area.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , all of it land.

Climate

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Pacheco has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.

Demographics

The 2020 United States census reported that Pacheco had a population of 4,183. The population density was . The racial makeup of Pacheco was 51.9% White, 1.8% African American, 1.1% Native American, 11.7% Asian, 0.4% Pacific Islander, 16.6% from other races, and 16.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 31.8% of the population.

The census reported that 100% of the population lived in households.

There were 1,630 households, out of which 28.7% included children under the age of 18, 42.3% were married-couple households, 6.3% were cohabiting couple households, 30.4% had a female householder with no partner present, and 21.1% had a male householder with no partner present. 30.0% of households were one person, and 13.0% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.57. There were 1,034 families (63.4% of all households).

The age distribution was 20.0% under the age of 18, 7.9% aged 18 to 24, 25.7% aged 25 to 44, 29.2% aged 45 to 64, and 17.2% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 41.7years. For every 100 females, there were 93.4 males.

There were 1,655 housing units at an average density of , of which 1,630 (98.5%) were occupied. Of these, 78.3% were owner-occupied, and 21.7% were occupied by renters.

Education

It is in the Mount Diablo Unified School District.

Media

The town of Pacheco is served by the daily newspaper, ''Contra Costa Times'' published by Bay Area News Group-East Bay (part of the Media News Group, Denver, Colorado). The paper was originally run and owned by the Lesher family. Claycord.com is the independent news and talk blog serving the greater Pacheco area.

See also

* List of census-designated places in California

References

External links

{{authority control

1857 establishments in California
Census-designated places in California
Census-designated places in Contra Costa County, California
Pony Express stations
Populated places established in 1857