Third Laguna Hills Mutual

Third Laguna Hills Mutual covers 740 acres of Laguna Woods and holds 6,130 residences across 48 streets, which makes it the largest of the Village's three housing corporations by land. Its buildings vary more than anywhere else in the city: the city gives a residence count to 1,547 of the 1,645 buildings inside the boundary, and they run from a single residence up to twenty-four, with 426 standing alone, 270 holding four, 208 holding three, 195 holding two, 195 holding six and 59 holding twenty-four. The association separately counts 53 three-story Garden Villa buildings. The streets are private, and the city's record counts 129 turning circles inside the line.

Ownership here is condominium. An owner holds a separate interest in a unit together with an equal interest in the common area, which includes the building exteriors, the carports and the laundry facilities within the mutual's boundaries, and the association publishes 6,102 condominium memberships. Residents share the Golden Rain Foundation's seven clubhouses, five pools, two fitness centers, two golf courses, the ten court tennis complex, two garden centers, the Equestrian Center and the private bus system. Third is the one mutual a school district line crosses: the Census places 637.6 acres and 6,485 of its addresses in Saddleback Valley Unified, whose locator returns Olivewood Elementary at 396 students, and 83.2 acres with 532 addresses in Laguna Beach Unified.

Ross Cortese bought a portion of the Moulton Ranch in 1962, ground the city describes as dry farming and cattle grazing with scattered ranch buildings before that decade, and Leisure World Laguna Hills received its first residents in 1964. Third Laguna Hills Mutual is the condominium side of what followed. It is a non-profit mutual benefit housing corporation which manages, operates and maintains the common area property within what the association calls the original 38 mutuals, almost twice the number the cooperative corporation absorbed, and every condominium owner inside its boundaries is required to apply for membership in it.

Third is the corporation that took the rising ground, and the land shows it. It spreads across five of the city's planning units, with 489.7 acres in unit 1-A alone, and the general plan holds 602.6 of its acres to fewer than ten homes an acre against 137.6 acres allowed between ten and fewer than thirteen, which is why the density thins as the land climbs.