Belmopan, Belize, North America
 
 
Year1966latitude: 17° 13'
longitude: -88° 48'
Period
Initiator(s)
Planning organization
Nationality initiator(s)
Designer(s) / Architect(s)
Design organizationReconstruction and Development Corporation (Recondev)
Inhabitants16,400 (2004)
Target population
Town website
Town related linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belmopan
http://www.belizex.com/belmopan.htm
Literature- Robert B. Potter (ed.), 'Urbanization, Planning and Development in the Caribbean", Mansell 1990

type of New Town: > scale of autonomy
New-Town-in-Town
Satellite
New Town
Company Town
> client
Private Corporation
Public Corporation
> policy
Capital
Decentralization
Industrialization
Resettlement
Economic
 
(1)Refugee town (2)Belmopan was established as government seat following the devastation of the former capital, Belize City, by Hurricane Hattie in 1961. High ground and open space influenced the choice and ground-breaking began in 1966. By 1970 most government offices and operations had already moved to the new location, (3) leaving little development of other employment sources. The area around the town has been rapidly growing with the influx of thousands of Central American refugees that have been flooding into the country since the early 1980s. Belmopan is a safer, better constructed capital than Belize City, and acted as a focus and base for the drive towards independence (1981) of the newly established nation of Belize. The new housing is all new to Belize, and expensive; later lower cost housing units have been built.

source: (1)'New Towns. Their Origins, Achievements and Progress', J. Osborn, A. Whittick, 1977 (2)web (3) Potter

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