Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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to virtually all those who applied for a grant. The municipal staff with alacrity hastened the
delivery of needed lots to ministerial departments waiting for land to commence their
projects. The baladyyah commenced the radical shift by presiding over the construction
spree in New Huraimla starting with the construction of its own office complex.
D. Al-Hazm: "New Huraimla" (1979-Present)
According to Al-Tua'is (1979), early builders of Huraimla valued security over
potential natural disasters; since its birth in the ninth century H (14th A.D.) the town has
been under incessant threat from raids and floods. Old Huraimla is besieged by a system
of wadis, tributaries, and creeks from all sides but a small area to the north, which is
obstructed by a deep-cliffed mountain range. Moreover, considerable land lying within
Huraimla's vicinity has been utilized for agriculture; while the remainder was used for
cemeteries, all factors which contributed to the lack of available developable land. Given
population projections, Huraimla's northern option proved incapable to meet the town's
rising needs for land. Despite the opposition by some land owners and residents, who
favored northern growth, Huraimla's municipality's staff vehemently and resolutely led the
effort to move the city to Al-Hazm area, which offered a vast expanse of land, two
kilometers west of the old town. The fact that the Al-Hazm lay in an area that was
government owned served as a stimulating factor to start anew unconstrained suburban
development at standards which matched those followed by the Kingdom's leading cities
(Figures 8.13 and 8.14).
In Al-Hazm, the municipal staff envisioned a central service area (subdivision 398)
housing a modern hospital, a new municipality, schools and an array of public facilities,
whose construction funds had been assured by the central state (Figure 8.15). Al-Hazm
offered a viable alternative to the extant natural constraints to growth in the old town where
land prices skyrocketed and had become an obstacle to growth. Moreover, by moving to
Al-Hazm, the municipality averted the onerous task of squeezing the newly state-offered
projects into the traditional town where developable land was scarce. In addition,
considerable land lying in the walled town and the surrounding farms were owned by
families locked in a maze of inheritance and property rights. This rendered the
expropriation of land for the new projects and new dwellings a formidable task. Such
expropriation would have involved large funds, a factor which also might have resulted in