Aspen Trails

Details

• Approx. # of lots: 143
• Size of Lots: 1 acre up to about 5 acres tops
• General Location: About 12 1/2 miles northeast of Durango on Florida Rd. on the North side of Florida Rd
• Price Range of Lots: $40,000 – $125,000
• Price Range of Homes: $145,000 – $525,000
• Schools: Riverview Elementary, Miller Middle School, Durango High School
• HOA and/or Metro District: Mandatory Metro district for road improvements and maintenance. There is no organized HOA
• Manufactured Homes Allowed: Yes, in part of the project

Description

This project was developed in the late 1960s early 1970s when 1 acre parcels were acceptable. Under today’s rules you couldn’t develop this project in this manner unless you had central water or a central sewer system. When this was initially developed, it was intended as a recreational subdivision with little A-frame cabins for people who would go hunting or perhaps a small summer retreat. They even installed a central water system in a portion of the project but didn’t bury the water lines deep enough to have them be able to be used year-round. Since this was intended as seasonal property, the roads were quite rough and some of them fairly steep and narrow. In about 2003, the homeowners got together and formed a Metropolitan District. The purpose of the district was to borrow $200,000 in order to improve the existing roads, collect monthly maintenance fees to keep the roads maintained, and collect money on the property tax bill as an additional capital fund. Slowly the roads have been improving which has certainly upgraded the entire living experience in Aspen Trails.

As the name implies, there are lots of Aspen trees as well as spruce trees in this development. I would estimate the elevation to be between 8000 feet to 8400 feet. It is just a few short miles to Lemon Reservoir and about 7 or 8 miles to Vallecito Lake. General terrain in Aspen trails varies quite a bit but there is a small creek that comes down through the project and the lots go up the hill on each side of the creek. Some of the lots are fairly steep. Part of the property lies adjacent to national forest. There is quite a mix to the types of homes in Aspen Trails. In some parts there are the old A-frames; in another section you have double wide homes on permanent foundations; there are campers in other areas for those that are still using it in the summer only; and finally there are the more traditional mountain homes for year-round use. Since we are considerably higher than town, this subdivision gets a lot more snow which is a road maintenance and home maintenance issue. You definitely need four-wheel drive vehicles. There is no central sewer, so individual septic system would be required. There is no natural gas so bottled propane would be necessary for that type of service. Water service is best obtained by drilling your own individual well and some of those can be a little low on production, so care must be taken when purchasing a property. Deer, bear and an occasional elk are typical neighbors.