House and farm lots available in Belize District

If you’d like to move out of the city, you may want to consider relocating to the Belize District. In the weekly Cabinet meeting it was agreed that five thousand house lots would be provided on government lands near the Bermudian Landing/Rancho Dolores junction and in Sandhill. Government will survey the lots and provide roads to the subdivisions. The cost of the surveys, which will be conducted by private companies, will be included in the fees paid for the leases. Larger lots will also be made available for those who wish to establish small farms. The Minister of Budget Planning and Management Ralph Fonseca reported on a meeting with representatives of the Belmopan Citizens Committee concerning the upcoming referendum for Belmopan to become a city and its financial implications. If the motion passes a City Council would replace the Reconstruction and Development Corporation as Belmopan’s governing body. Cabinet confirmed that if residents vote to become a city, they will continue to receive an annual government subvention of two hundred thousand dollars plus an additional one hundred thousand dollars for administrative costs associated with government buildings and assets. Whether or not there is an elected City Council, however, in April, at the start of the next financial year, Belmopan residents owning property will have to pay taxes to finance the administration of the Capital. If a city council is elected, property taxes would initially be calculated at the lowest rate since this would be a new administrative arrangement. Low-income properties would pay a flat fee. The government says by the end of 1999, most of the mortgages now held by Recondev will be discharged. Present for the first time at a Cabinet meeting was Patty Arceo, the newly appointed Minister of State for Industry.