The La Cumbre Mutual Water Company was formed in 1925 to serve water to land owners in Hope Ranch and the area between Hollister Avenue and Hope Ranch, totaling approximately 2,000 acres. In the 1930s lots needing water were being sold by the development company headed by Mr. Harold Chase and his associates, who founded the Water Company and the Hope Ranch Park Homes Association. Goleta Water District did not exist until 1944. In those days, this area was far removed from the City of Santa Barbara.

Ninety plus years later, your Water Company still provides water to its shareholders on a non-profit mutual-benefit basis. Every landowner is an owner of this company. The ownership is attached to the land and the amount of ownership is proportional to acreage.

Over the years, our service area has essentially remained the same, although our number of customers has increased and new sources of supply have been added. In the 1930s we had less than 100 customers, now we have over 1400. In

the next 10 to 20 years we will probably reach our capacity of approximately 1500 service connections.

In the early years we had only local well water supplies. In the 1960s we began receiving Lake Cachuma water as we have been a wholesale Goleta Water District customer. Our service area is within the Goleta Water District boundaries. In 1997, we began receiving state water which originates in northern California through the Lake Cachuma infrastructure.

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The Board of Directors and Staff look forward to providing our unique community many more years of reliable and affordable water service.