Aspen Hills

Big Lake Township

PROJECT EXPERIENCE


Aspen Hills began as a 156-acre rural parcel without the luxury of municipal sanitary sewer service. Town Center Development acquired the land with the intention of creating a residential subdivision. However, this was a parcel with high groundwater and unsuitable soils, meaning that traditional individual on-site sewer challenge in the course of designing this subdivision.

After evaluating options, JPJ Engineering chose a community mechanical wastewater treatment facility, designed solely to serve this 78-lot subdivision. The facility was centrally located in the development to collect flows from each home viz a small pressurized sewer main. A lift station and one-half mile of pipe were needed to safely carry the treated water to Tibbets Creek, upstream of the Elk River. Because home sites were not required to have individual treatment systems under this design, JPJ Engineering created a subdivision using smaller, one-half acre minimum lots. This approach permitted more lots to be developed and allowed large areas of open space for residents' enjoyment and wetland protection.

By creating a central sewage treatment facility and designing a subdivision containing somewhat smaller lots, a nearly undeveloped parcel of land was transformed into a financially viable project for the developer. The residents of this development reap the combined benefits of the community-based treatment system, large common open spaces, and the natural allure of the preserved wetlands.