Belmopan, Belize, North America
Year 1966 latitude: 17° 13' longitude: -88° 48' Period Initiator(s) Planning organization Nationality initiator(s) Designer(s) / Architect(s) Design organization Reconstruction and Development Corporation (Recondev) Inhabitants 16,400 (2004) Target population Town website Town related links http://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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