New satellite city officially launched

Today,
the media was briefed on the construction of the new satellite city at
mile thirty-one on the Western Highway. Carolyn Trench Sandiford, the
project coordinator says while the work has been delayed by inclement
weather, most of the land clearing is complete and they are looking at
starting the next phase of the project, which is the social and housing
infrastructure. Sandiford says the project will not only be a well planned
urban community, but the new city will ease pressure on the housing market
in Belize City and Belmopan.

Carolyn Trench Sandiford, Project Coordinator
“You have the main boulevard with the commercial areas, an essential
market, municipal authorities, administration as well as space for other
commercial activities. As we move into the town itself, you can notice
that there is a kind of concentric layout of the residential areas. Starting
from this side, we have different lot sizes and when we look at this side
we see some yellow, some orange and some blue and over there you see some
yellow, orange and blue and also some purple in this side. What we try
to do in terms of our lot sizes was to ensure that when people talk about
going out to the suburbs to live, nobody wants a small lot. I think one
of the key things that you keep hearing from Belize City people are that
they are tired of 50×75 and that they are tired by little lots. However,
on the other side, the bigger the lots, the more expansive it becomes
to put in the infrastructure. So we try to do what we call a balance,
give a little bigger lot, but not too big that it will become so expensive
in terms of putting in the infrastructure. The four lot size therefore
that we have are the ones in yellow which are 60×90, about twelve hundred
of those. We have five hundred of those, which you see in the yellow,
these are 75×100. We have two hundred of those that you see in the blue,
these are 100×125 and we have a hundred of those that you see in the purple
which is a 100×150.”

While Sandiford says we should not expect a fully functioning city
for at least three to five years time, people can expect to move to the
location in August of next year. A website is being set up to provide
information and answers for potential residents, business people and investors.
The new city is being built by Adolf Lupp and Company, a structural and
civil engineering firm from Germany. Loan financing is being provided
by the Deutsche Bank of Germany