All About The History of Pleasant Hill, California

Pleasant Hill is a city located in Contra Costa County , California , United States, in the East Bay Area of San Francisco Bay. The population was 33,152 in the 2010 census. It was incorporated in 1961. Pleasant Hill is home to College Park High School, Diablo Valley College, John F Kennedy University, Pleasant Hill Library and Contra Costa County Library, and Pleasant Hill Recreation & Park District.

 

This region has warm and dry summers, with no average monthly temperature of more than 71 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius). According to the Köppen Climate Classification System, Pleasant Hill has a warm summer Mediterranean climate. Winter daytime temperatures tend to be between the fifties and the sixties, and summers range from the high seventies to the upper eighties, sometimes to the low nineties. On very rare occasions, temperatures can reach a range of 100 degrees during extreme heat waves. It's rare to freeze in the winter, but it does happen. Summer fog is occasional, but winter fog is common.

 

The area that is now the City of Pleasant Hill grew from farmland to a dormitory community during the Second World War. Residents voted to incorporate it in 1961. Early on, community leaders expressed concern about the deteriorating condition of many properties developed decades before the intersection of Contra Costa Boulevard and Monument Boulevard, two main roads through the community. At the same time, it was envisaged that this central area could be transformed into a focal point for community identity, providing a place for residents to gather and strengthening the community's sense of place.

 

In the early 1970s, the City explored various ways of achieving its vision and, in 1974, adopted the Pleasant Hill Commons Redevelopment Plan for the Area as authorized by the State Community Redevelopment Act.

 

The Redevelopment Plan provided a framework for future decisions on the type and amount of new developments to be allowed, set up the administrative powers needed to implement the plan, and set up a financial resource to increase income from property taxes to fund public improvement and subsidize private sector redevelopment efforts.

 

The objectives of the Redevelopment Plan have been strongly supported by the citizens of Pleasant Hill. It would, however, be almost twenty-five years before the birth of a new downtown, fulfilling these dreams.