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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Water customers in one Colorado Springs neighborhood have had their water rates increase dramatically this past cycle.

Customers of the Cherokee Metropolitan District have seen their water bills go up a whopping 87 percent. The district covers 7,400 homes in the Cimarron Hills area.

And officials there say they had no other choice than to raise the rates that much.

The FOX21 newsroom has gotten a number of complaints from water customers about the increase.

District officials say a number of court cases that didn’t go their way combined with a contract expiring, which means the district didn’t have enough water for all its customers, and buying it will cost them dearly.

The Cherokee Metropolitan District is the area from roughly Powers Boulevard to Marksheffel Street, and Platte Avenue to North Carefree Avenue

There are about 18,000 people who live in the area and all are facing much higher water bills.

“We have not raised our water rates in three years," said Cherokee Metropolitan District general manager Kip Petersen. He says a number of factors forced them to raise water rates.

"With those court cases that Cherokee was not successful in we lost almost half our water rights," said Petersen.

And the district’s back-up source of water is Colorado Springs Utilities. The contract to buy water from CSU expired at the end of last year and the new contract isn’t nearly as favorable.

"The contract I have from the city now is the amount the would normally charge an outside user," said Petersen.

The new rate the district is paying represents a 300 percent increase. And the increase for residential customers is 87 percent.

"Percentage-wise it sounds very large but historically Cherokee has had one of the lowest rates in the Pikes Peak region," said Petersen.

Some customers have questioned if the district snuck the increase through when no one was looking.

“I understand people who don’t like the rate increases are going to try and say it was passed under the cover of darkness but I will adamantly dispute that," said Petersen.

Peterson says they would have avoided the increase if they could have.

The average customer with a lawn will see their summer bill go from about $40 a month to about $75 a month.