This spring, Nicolson Farms, the small strawberry stand along historic Route 66 in Rancho Cucamonga, is heading into what could be its final harvest. The family that runs the patch says the land they lease is now wrapped up in a deal with a developer that wants to swap berry fields for apartment buildings.
A farmer racing the calendar
As reported by the Chicago Tribune, farm operator Kyle Nicolson says he planted early last fall and pushed the season forward because his lease kept rolling over month to month. “There probably won’t be any of these farms in five to 10 years unless the grower owns the land,” Nicolson told the paper.
Hospital sale and development plan
The Nicolson family leases the property from San Antonio Regional Hospital, which told ABC7 it has reached an agreement to sell the parcel to a developer called Fore Property. According to ABC7, the company is eyeing a large apartment complex for the site, and the city still has to run the proposal through environmental review before anything moves ahead.
Site details and what’s at stake
State filings reviewed by the Chicago Tribune show Fore Property is planning a 308-unit building with ground-floor retail. The Tribune also reported that the farm covers roughly nine acres, that strawberries at the stand go for $6 a basket and $53 for a full box, and that the family kicked off the 2026 season with an Instagram announcement in early January.
Part of a larger pattern
The tension on this corner of Route 66 mirrors a bigger statewide shift. The American Farmland Trust reports that California lost about 332,197 acres of agricultural land between 2017 and 2022, and AFT’s modeling warns that the total loss could reach about 797,358 acres by 2040. Tom Stein, AFT’s California regional director, wrote on the group’s site that “in California, we’re losing farms and ranches at an alarming rate.”
Neighbors push back
Regular customers and preservation advocates are not taking the potential loss quietly. They have launched petitions and turned out at meetings to argue that the stand should be protected as a local landmark. A Change.org petition and related outreach have gathered thousands of signatures from residents who say the farm is part of the Route 66 character that still clings to Foothill Boulevard.
What happens next
City planning staff are now reviewing the developer’s application, and environmental review is the next formal step before any rezoning or approvals, city officials told ABC7. The hospital has said that money from a sale would go toward a new maternity unit and a center for aging in the area, according to the same statement.
For the moment, families are still walking the rows and hauling away bright red berries from a corner of Route 66, while developers, hospital leaders and city staff sort out the future. What happens in Rancho Cucamonga will serve as a small but telling test of how California tries to meet housing demand without completely erasing its remaining small, local farms.
