Brad,
There are no shortcuts. In fact, looking for “shortcuts” will cost you far more money and time than doing it right in the first place. I’ve was an irrigation contractor in CA (we know a bit about water lines out there) plus I’ve had 2 parks and both had/have problems with the lines. All parks seem to have problems with their water lines and it’s usually due, IMHO, to the cheap idiots who designed and installed the systems in the first place. It’s certainly that way in my current park and now I’m paying the price for the cheap work that was done in the past.
Were I in your position, I would do the following:
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Get over the idea of finding a shortcut.
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Hire the best (probably the costliest) engineer available and have him design a system that meets “best industry practices” and not just code. The percentage increase in cost is very low.
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Plan for adequate isolation valves both on your trunk and house lateral lines. This step alone will pay for the cost of a really good system.
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Put in check valves for each home and tell the residents. They will appreciate it.
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Hire that same engineer to inspect the project at critical points.
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YOU buy the materials instead of the contractor and have the engineer verify they were actually installed. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen specs calling for Shed.40 pipe and then digging up a broken CLAS 200 line. Don’t understand what I’m talking about? Learn damn fast since this is a classic way for contractors to make money and give you a lousy job.
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Plan for adding irrigation lines in the future in case you ever decide to landscape the place. The cost of this is pennies compared to what it will take to cut them in later.
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Talk to your engineer about “sleeving” the pipes at critical points and make sure you install large sleeves with extra, capped, pipes. One sleeve can save you a fortune if it prevents a trunk line break at 2:00 AM in January. Think it doesn’t happen? Guess again.
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See if you can do the project in phases starting at the municipal point-of-connection and working outward. It may be possible and then you can spread the cost over several seasons instead of doing it all at once.
You or anyone else is welcome to contact me for more info as this is something I know a bit about. (Seriously thinking about getting a degree in this as it is a huge and rapidly growing field that can never be outsourced.) Park water systems are not rocket science but too many people are concerned about the upfront cost and not the lifetime cost. The latter can be much higher.
Rolf
Wheat Hill