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Shabica & Associates, Inc. Sustainable Coastal Solutions |
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Harbor Design & Planning — Belize |
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The Ara Macao Development is situated on 582 acres with 1 mile of Caribbean coast and 200 feet of frontage on the Placencia Lagoon. The development will include a full service, 65-acre marina with private docks for 300 boats up to 100 feet in length, 59 single-family homes, 750 condos and townhouses, a 260–room hotel, a casino and nightclub, a championship golf course, restaurants, retail and commercial space, a rainforest and Scarlet Macaw preserve, and an indigenous plant nursery. Shabica & Associates is responsible for all of the coastal planning for the development and design of the marina, including coastal site investigation, preliminary design and project engineering, and permit applications. Shabica & Associates’ goal is to create an environmentally-sensitive marina system that will not be detrimental to the local coastal ecology. Local concerns that are being addressed are the protection of the nearshore patch reefs and lobster habitat as well as the breaching of the Placencia Peninsula should a hurricane hit the development. Shabica & Associates subcontracted Moffat & Nichol Engineers to provide the numerical modeling for tidal flushing of the marina. This project has recently been approved by the Belizean Minister of Environment and is now moving to the preconstruction phase. |