Belmont, Arizona
Belmont is a proposed planned city in the Phoenix metropolitan area of Arizona, United States. The development, a partnership between billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and local real estate investors, will be a "smart city" designed around emerging technologies. It will be located in the West Valley area, along Interstate 10 near Tonopah. History. The area east of Tonopah has been sought for suburban development since the 1990s, but the lack of growth in the West Valley until the 2000s stalled the project. In the mid 2000s, developers proposed Douglas Ranch, a long-term development that would house over  290,000 people, on a nearby site. Bill Gates's involvement in the planned community was announced on November 8, 2017. His investment company, Cascade Investment, reportedly purchased an $80 million stake in the project. Plans. The land Belmont is to be built on currently consists of of undeveloped desert, which will be divided into of office, commercial, and retail space, of industrial space, of open space, and for schools. The remaining land will house 80,000 residential units. Upon full build out, the community is planned to support a population as large as Tempe. The development aims to integrate autonomous  vehicles, high-speed digital networks, and data centers into the city. Transportation. Belmont will be located along Interstate 10 near its planned interchange with Interstate 11, a future highway that will connect the Phoenix area to Las Vegas and Reno. Criticism. "Seattle Times" columnist Jon Talton, a former Phoenix resident, said that development of Belmont would push sprawl farther into the threatened Sonoran Desert. He also stated that climate change would pose a danger to the long-term habitability of the Phoenix area, as water becomes scarcer and temperatures rise. Henry Grabar of "Slate" criticized the media circus surrounding Gates 's involvement, as well as what he called the "foolish nature" of the proposal.