A Neighborhood with an Older Story
At first glance, The Colonies at San Antonio may seem like one of Upland’s newer residential communities: landscaped entrances, carefully planned streets, attractive homes, neighborhood trails, and convenient shopping at Colonies Crossroads. But beneath that modern appearance is a story tied closely to Upland’s earliest development, its citrus-growing past, its water resources, and the city’s continuing relationship with the foothills of Mount San Antonio.
The community occupies roughly 440 acres in northeastern Upland, generally between 16th Street and 20th Street, east of Campus Avenue and west of the Cucamonga Creek Flood Control Channel. Its location places it near the northern edge of the city, where suburban neighborhoods meet the open views and dramatic mountain backdrop that have long shaped Upland’s identity.
The Colonies is not an old neighborhood in the traditional sense. Most of its homes and commercial areas were developed during the late 1990s and 2000s. Yet its heritage is part of a much longer local timeline—one that began with Native communities, continued through the Chaffey brothers’ Ontario Model Colony, and was later shaped by citrus agriculture, railroads, irrigation, and carefully engineered water systems.
Why It Is Called “The Colonies”
The name “The Colonies at San Antonio” reflects both Upland’s history and the development company behind the project.
Upland was originally part of the Ontario Model Colony, established in the 1880s by George and William Chaffey. The brothers envisioned a planned agricultural community supported by irrigation, broad streets, schools, churches, and commerce. Their model colony eventually expanded into the area now known as Upland, and Euclid Avenue became its most recognizable organizing feature. The 200-foot-wide avenue, lined with trees and a central parkway, remains one of the clearest reminders of that original planning tradition.
The “San Antonio” portion of the name connects the development to the San Antonio watershed and the nearby foothills. The San Antonio Water Company, founded during the region’s agricultural era, historically owned and managed portions of the land. Some of the property used for The Colonies had served as a place where stormwater could percolate into the groundwater system near the base of the mountains.
By the late 1990s, the land was acquired by Colonies Partners, a development consortium that gave the new community its first name. In that sense, “The Colonies” is both a reference to Upland’s historical roots and a modern branding choice that echoed the city’s reputation as a planned, landscaped, citrus-era community.
From Open Land to Master-Planned Community
The project’s origins reach back to the late 1980s, when Upland approved an earlier San Antonio Lakes specific plan for the undeveloped property. That plan imagined a mixed-use community with homes, shopping, recreation, and a flood-control lake. Over time, the concept was revised and renamed through later planning efforts.
A major turning point came with the extension of State Route 210 across northern Upland. The freeway improved regional access but also made drainage and flood-control planning especially important. The Colonies project required coordination among the city, the San Bernardino County Flood Control District, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other public agencies.
In 1998, the city reviewed an amendment to the Colonies at San Antonio Specific Plan. The proposal covered nearly 444 acres and included residential neighborhoods, commercial development, recreation areas, open space, and infrastructure improvements. The plan ultimately called for approximately 1,050 to 1,150 homes, commercial acreage, and substantial recreational and community uses.
On September 24, 2002, the Upland City Council approved a development agreement that allowed the project to proceed. At that point, the community was envisioned as a major new center for northern Upland rather than simply another housing tract.
The Role of Colonies Crossroads
One of the most visible results of the development is Colonies Crossroads, the commercial center near Campus Avenue and the Foothill Freeway. Announced in the early 2000s, the shopping center was planned as a large retail destination with more than one million square feet of commercial space.
Early plans included national retailers such as Target and Kohl’s, along with restaurants, entertainment, and specialty stores. The center was designed to serve both the residents of The Colonies and shoppers from surrounding communities, including Rancho Cucamonga, Claremont, La Verne, and the western Inland Empire.
For longtime Upland residents, Colonies Crossroads marked a substantial change in the city’s northern landscape. What had once been largely open or restricted-use land became a place for shopping, dining, commuting, and everyday errands. The commercial district also helped give the neighborhood a sense of arrival and connected it more directly to the 210 freeway.
Streets, Open Space, and Neighborhood Design
The residential portion of The Colonies was planned with a different rhythm from older Upland neighborhoods. Instead of relying on a traditional street grid, many interior streets use loops, courts, and cul-de-sacs to reduce through traffic. Streets such as Colonies Parkway, Tanglewood Avenue, 16th Street, and 19th Street help organize the community and connect it to surrounding roads.
The plan also emphasized landscaped parkways, consistent street trees, entry monuments, pedestrian links, and a recognizable visual character. A central feature is the large retention basin and surrounding greenbelt, which serve practical flood-management purposes while also contributing to the community’s open, park-like setting. The city’s housing documents identify a 23.5-acre retention basin surrounded by greenbelt as one of the specific plan’s defining features.
Walking paths connect portions of the neighborhood with natural open space and the Cucamonga Creek Channel Regional Trail. These features give residents a way to experience the landscape beyond their individual streets and reflect an important idea in the community’s design: infrastructure and recreation could share the same space.
Nearby Landmarks and Upland Heritage
Although The Colonies itself was built in the modern era, it sits within a city filled with older landmarks.
A short drive south is historic Euclid Avenue, whose broad parkway recalls the Chaffey brothers’ original vision for the Ontario Model Colony. The avenue links Upland and Ontario and remains one of the region’s most distinctive historic streets.
Nearby historic resources include the Old San Antonio Hospital at 792 West Arrow Highway, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Ontario and San Antonio Heights Waiting Station at 1251 West 24th Street. The waiting station recalls the electric railway era, when streetcars helped connect Upland, Ontario, and the foothill communities.
These landmarks help place The Colonies in context. The neighborhood may have newer homes, but it belongs to a city whose identity was built around transportation, water, agriculture, and planned growth.
How The Colonies Has Evolved
Over the decades, The Colonies has matured from a major development proposal into an established residential district. Young landscaping has grown fuller, homeowners have personalized their properties, and the streets have taken on the lived-in character that new communities acquire over time.
The area has also evolved as Upland itself has changed. Families who moved into the first homes have remained, downsized, or welcomed new generations. Retail patterns at Colonies Crossroads have shifted, while the residential streets remain anchored by schools, trails, local services, and views toward the San Gabriel Mountains.
What makes The Colonies special is this blend of new and old. Its homes belong to the suburban growth of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, but its name and setting reach back to Upland’s earliest planned development. The community stands as a modern chapter in a much older local story—one written in citrus groves, water channels, broad avenues, foothill trails, and the enduring desire to make a place feel connected to its landscape.