AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Chat Area Roads up North

Has anyone mentioned the black top driveways we will all need. I want mine to be double wide and have a huge turn around for the new cars and boat trailers.

All of our golf carts and soon your truck will be able to drive directly to the markets and across the new bridge.

We could all drag race and squeel tires. (OH what FUN....)

Damned fools...
Sand is a pleasure
Enjoy pleasures.
Love life and get a boat

Let's keep beating this dead horse!!! SFJeff, you have a first class resort...good work! Corona Steve, try to follow me on this one. In most places around the states there are zoning restrictions. Usually houses are in residential zones and Wal-Mart is in a commercial zone. Hotels are in mixed areas. Ac is unique, long and skinny. The cart path north across the cut winds past homes, a few commercial properties(Palapa Bar, Sweet Basils etc.) and some resorts. As more resorts such as Belize Legacy or larger move up the coast it creats a bit of a problem, And they are planning moving folks without a road. Usually busy streets moving a lot of traffic don't wind through residential areas. So by building a road north to the most remote resort or homes presents a traffic nightmare. Put all of the residents, employees,food and beverage vehicles on this road wich will be about 15 miles long. Now envision the island visitors using taxis, busses or the monorail(sorry, I couldn't help myself ) traveling this road each day. Does the "Hollywood Freeway" become a luxury or a nightmare. And I have seen the island by air all of the way to Mexico. Unless you have a Billion dollars to drive pilings into the swamp land you won't hide the road from anyone. Here in Southern California we have a fantastic place called Catalina Island. It's 28 miles from the mainland. Everyday a DC-3 flys goods out to the island and it gets shipped 12 or so miles from the airstrip to Avalon, the resort town. Helicopters and large ferrys take thousands of visitors to the island each year. This amazes me! I can't figure out why we don't just build a 26 mile causway from Long Beach to Avalon like the Florida Keys????? Then we could just jump in our SUV's and drive over in 20 minutes!!!!!

...now the following curveball will NO DOUBT add another 10 pages to this thread (forgive me folks... someone copy this to a new one if ya like) but Reaper, you touch on a few really 'interesting' subjects in your last comment. Where we are on the island used to be considered, even but a few years ago, "way up north"... not so anymore. We're in the 'burbs. That's a fact. Another fact? Places like Belize Legacy, Blue Reef, etc ARE being built. You're correct in that shuttling employees, food and beverages, etc, etc to these areas every day presents a challenge. A lot of the resorts up there and the ones to come, I'm sure, will find it much more convenient to have as much staff live on site as possible (for those reading this who don't live here, gas down here sure is expensive and if you're 10-15 miles north of town, less you have a sail, your ride to San Pedro and back is not cheap!) So you'll have more staff that lives up there... then, at some point, some enterprising person will open up a little take out joint or such to cater to staff who are tired of eating staff meals and/or cooking for themselves... Master Lee's North? Another enterprising person will realize that there are enough people working/living in the area to support a place for people to hang out when they are off the clock to gossip and enjoy a beer or two... Some REALLY enterprising person might, when the timing is right, figure out that it is really expensive to have to drive your boat 10 miles to fill up on gas and you'll then find a pump on a dock with a little stand where you can fill up on gas and oil and buy some snacks to go... Mind you, this will happen slowly, little by little... also mind you, I am NO EXPERT in these matters... but, I would bet my five cents (which is about all we have left after building this resort... thanks for the compliment though Reaper) that LONG before there is a pristine stretch of "2 lane blacktop" (now was THAT a great movie or what!) stretching from San Pedro to the regions north, something else will start to take seed...

another town.

(of course this has nothing to do with/will do nothing about the above mentioned 4 foot deep potholes between San Pedro and say where we are... solution for that??? Uh, gee, I dunno... take a boat?)

SF: Wouldn't an "AC Trailer park" like the spot next to Victoria House fit into the progression. And by the way, where in Belize is there a pristine blacktop road?

Reaper, thanks for your input, I myself grew up in Pasadena, Calif, moved to Florida 13 years ago.
Catalina is a great place, but last time I was there, I was very disappointed, as it did come to be a tourist mess. I remember going over there with friends, by boat, visiting the Casino, on the point, wonderful, now a t shirt and junk souvenir hell hole.
I do not want the North to become that way either, as to bridge, well lets forget the bridge idea, not worth comparing the 2, and yes the North is pristine, and should be developed in the way to maintain the area.
Next, in response to workers having to move north, I believe that is happening, with small bungalows for them now. A paved road is not the answer, but a good graded road, maintained by those who want it, will do fine, maybe having some sort of pass for those who help in keeping it that way, the rest would have to pay a fair price to use it part of the time. Commercial vehicles, maybe use it during certain hours of the day, again with a price to pay, that way, they would still have a choice, boat, barge, or road, also a stiff fine for all vehicles, including carts for caught speeding. Sometimes, I think, if a proper speed limit, the trucks will help with packing down the ground, thus keeping it from washing it away. What do you think will happen when the development starts and people want to build , second, third or forth row lots, those trucks will have to be able to deliver the material to the site. I know the beachfront owners will complain, but will have to live with that, as they can not stop it, no matter what. Please keep the dialogue going, we might be on right track,and we might come up with a solution.
Thanks, concerned future developer of my 6 lots, maybe.

OMG Corona. I sure hope you move to Belize soon and stop voting here.

Khrefish... I'm afraid that Marty would have to politely delete any thought I might post on the development south of V.H. ...he's a busy enough guy as it is, so let's leave it at that.

C. Steve, you use three words with respect to "the road", the definitions of which can be varying: "good", "graded" and "maintained". A friend of mind has a road to his house in Cayo, about which he PROUDLY exclaimed "This is a LOT better than it used to be? Pretty good eh?" It IS and he IS right, but you could still lose a Geo Metro in it. "Graded"??? OK... Let's see... I'll give this road a B-, as I still have 4 wheels, 2 axles and most of my fillings... and "maintained"... Well, unlike say a outboard lower unit, at least it'd be tough for someone to make off with a road... 'suppose that's maintainence... let's get our feet wet maintaining the 10-odd newly paved blocks in town first perhaps...

You do allude to something though which is a BRILLIANT idea, on which I am going to take the ball and run with first thing this am... as soon as I am done with this cup of coffee... "Privatization!!!" Why rely upon the Gov. or town to do something that the private sector could do better and that ya can make a buck at!!! (Uh, by private I'm not talking about the community of concerned land owners at large or such, I'm just talking about me and a few pals.) So here's the idea... "Fractional Road Ownership!!!" Buyers would swarm to the idea, lured by attractive "pre-construction" prices. With enough pre-construction sales, I'm sure I could have the thing started in 6 months time... well, maybe 8... Buyers would proudly OWN a piece of the Caribbean (albeit a paved piece but it would still be luxurious, all smooth with say conch shell dividers and reflectors and such.) And think of the return on investment from tolls and Ez-passes!!! (buyer's ROI of course not guaranteed, and subject to monthly maint. charges.) Amanda, will you list this? What a fool I've been... a complete buffoon what toiling away at this "resort" when for a fraction of the start up cost and say a good used Blaw Knox PF-5510 paving machine, I could be cruising down easy street, paving it as I go. "What's that??? Oh... The Blaw Knox paver won't start this morning... Uh... can you call and see if Cal can come up and fix it???!!!"

Soon, very soon, San Pedro Town, as much as I love it, will be the industrial/business end of the island, which it is currently heading towards. Tractor trailers, dump trucks, block factories, etc... They are all here and more are coming. A lot of building is going on up north, which will be the "zona viva" or nice part of the island, shops, restaurants, hotels, condos, etc....

Can't stop it so enjoy it or head for the Corn Islands.

Jeff, I need to get in touch regarding Belizean Entertainment.

SIN

After we buy shares in your road, will Sir Ashcroft or Mr. Prosser be buying it from us, and what will be our ROI?

the path up north will go farther as development requires.so let the developers build the roads at there expence. if they want to invest in property in the middle of nowhere, and have no road to access it, then they should build the road themselves, just as the existing resorts, houses, condo's etc. have already done. after all it is not a "road" anyway, it's just a well traveled path that over time got wider. oh yea and deeper in some spots.