You don't have to be Paul Bunyan to live in the state's largest suburban development.

You can be like normal-sized Mike and Shanna Mliner, who recently moved into a townhouse at the immense 3,600-home project, called The Lakes in Blaine.

"I was interested in The Lakes from Day One," Mike Mliner said, standing in his new $265,000 three-bedroom town home. "I like the whole layout, the lakes, the bike paths, the parks, everything."

By ordinary standards for developments, The Lakes is off the charts.

It will house about 10,000 people ? a population larger than those of 700 cities in Minnesota. At about 1,046 acres, it's easily Minnesota's largest development and roughly the size of nearby cities Circle Pines and Spring Lake Park.

The development is one reason Blaine is the metro area's fastest-growing city, with about 50,000 residents.

The Lakes is built around a chain of new lakes created by an enormous excavation project. If the Metrodome were Babe's water dish, the dirt moved for The Lakes would fill it 34 times.

But what really has neighbors talking are The Lakes' million-dollar homes ? unthinkable in Blaine only a few years ago. Five homes have sold for $1 million or more, and a few remain.

"We never dreamed we would see million-dollar homes. We thought $750,000 would be about the top," said Gary Gorham, founder of Gorham Homes, a partner in the project.

It's also a sign of how well the homes are selling. "When we started out, we thought it would be a 10-year project. Now, we could build it in five if we wanted to," said Gorham.

Today, the project is almost a third finished. It's expected to be done by 2009.

It began in 2001, when a group of investors led by Tony Emmerich, owner of Emmerich Development of Andover, began "assembling" parcels of land.

The land didn't look promising. It was flat as a tabletop, with no lakes or streams, and almost no wooded areas. It was covered with a 4-foot layer of peat, far too soft for building. Most of the land frequently flooded.

But Emmerich saw the potential. He assembled an army of earthmovers and began scooping out 160 acres of new lakes to a depth of about 14 feet. He used the dirt to build higher and drier areas for houses. He put the peat wherever plants would be needed.

As the project unfolded, builders marveled at the technique. "It was a peat farm, for crying out loud," said Tom McElveen, president of Hans Hagen Homes, one of eight Lakes builders. "You had to be extremely creative to muck out the peat, dig out the sand and get houses out of the flood plain."

The Lakes follows a U.S. trend toward ever-larger suburban developments. Additions of several thousand acres are common in the West and South, in particular.

Gorham said by thinking big, cities enjoy many advantages.

Usually, suburbs are developed in smaller pieces, at different times and by different developers. So, some might have trails while others don't. And it's hard to ensure that the landscaping, architecture and parks will complement each other.

Planning big permits "a more effective and efficient flowing of different land uses. It's not just another 100-acre parcel with a 2-acre park in the middle," said Emmerich project manager John Jackels.

By selling more houses at once, developers have more money for amenities such as parks, beaches, clubhouses and greenery. The Lakes has extensive landscaping, with berms, native flowers and grasses.

Most of the land will be irrigated with run-off water, recaptured in the lakes. This slashes consumption of city-supplied water ? lawn-watering is by far the biggest single domestic use of water ? and cuts costs.

The project features housing for various stages of life, from smaller town houses for singles to housing for the elderly, and mansions and single-family homes galore.

"We are missing the hospital to be born at and the mortuary, but we have everything in between," said Emmerich.