Read https://www.sfchronicle.com/culture/article/Toy-Story-at-25-An-oral-history-of-15749644.php to find out how Pixar grew up in Point Richmond.

Point Richmond is like Crockett, or Larkspur, or Sunol.

One of those lovely little Bay Area locales that is frozen in time, in part because residents speeding by on the highway almost never get off the road to see it. The rare Bay Area neighborhood that could be called a hamlet. If there were an opposite of Silicon Valley, it could be Point Richmond. If there were an opposite of Hollywood, it could be Point Richmond
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And yet, this overlooked pocket of the Bay Area is the birthplace of one of the biggest artistic and technical revolutions in movie history. Yes, the neighborhood filled with historical landmark protections and quirky cafes and surrounded by Bruce Springsteen lyrics — literally in the shadow of a refinery — is where “Toy Story” was made in its entirety. It’s where computer-generated animation feature filmmaking was born.

As far as we could find, there’s no Woody or Buzz Lightyear statue or even so much as a plaque. What remains are the memories of the 140 or so Pixar employees from the time who still consider the Point Richmond days a touchstone.

In 2000, Pixar moved from its Point Richmond studios to a new campus in Emeryville. For years, rumors circulated that Richmond had “lost” Pixar because of unwillingness to negotiate a sale of the Ford Assembly Building to Pixar.

In a 2008 E-FORUM, I wrote,

If you watch the documentary, “A Pixar Story,” tonight, you will see Steve Jobs complaining about “sheltering in place” at Pixar’s former Point Richmond location. Pixar insiders will tell you that a compelling motivation for Jobs to get Pixar out of Richmond was the specter of fires, explosions and gas releases from the nearby Chevron and General Chemical facilities.

• Don't kid yourself about Pixar's leaving their Point Richmond headquarters. They left because Richmond would not work with them on their plans for a corporate campus and Emeryville was only too happy to oblige. That was one of the biggest failures ever to happen to Richmond and it was because of government inaction/obstruction. In those days every time Pixar was mentioned in the news, there was always the tag line "a Point Richmond company". You could not have asked for better publicity for our city, and the government could not have asked for a better corporate partner. Richmond simply blew the opportunity.
• What about the Tax deal that Emeryville gave Pixar to move that Richmond wouldn't match??

The myth that Richmond somehow was sufficiently unresponsive to Pixar is just not accurate. Pixar made only one initiative to “work with Richmond.” They met with former Mayor Rosemary Corbin and demanded that Richmond bulldoze the Ford Assembly Building and turn the site over to Pixar for free, and they demanded an immediate response.

Mayor Corbin and other City leaders explained to them that the building was on the National Register of Historic Places and could not be summarily bulldozed without going through a CEQA review that could take several months with uncertain outcomes. The prospect of giving away a public asset was also something she could not summarily do. She did offer for the City’s redevelopment agency to work with Pixar to find a suitable site in Richmond, but Pixar wasn’t interested. That was the end of it; Pixar never came back. 

She felt that Pixar was just playing with Richmond, posturing to use the City as a bargaining chip with Emeryville. 

Incidentally, Emeryville did not gift Pixar the land they eventually built on.[2]