IJburg () is a residential neighbourhood under construction in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is situated in the IJmeer and is being built on artificial islands which have been raised from the lake. The Haveneiland, Rieteilanden, Steigereiland and Centrumeiland are already inhabited as of 2004. It is part of the municipality Amsterdam-Oost and also contains the Diemerpark, one of the city's largest parks. History Planning (1965–1997) In 1965, the architects Jo van den Broek and Jacob B. Bakema designed the Pampus Plan for a town in the IJmeer intended to house 350,000 residents, most of whom were to come from crowded Amsterdam. But national plans changed and people were instead encouraged to move from the city to the expanding towns in the neighbouring areas like Purmerend, Hoorn and the new city of Almere. The Bijlmermeer neighbourhood was also constructed south of the city and Diemen was expanded. Policy changes in the 1980s resulted in the development of construction nearer to the city. Amsterdam is located between Schiphol and important nature reserves and polders near the river Amstel in Amstelveen and Landelijk Noord, the only location possible for development was Nieuw-Oost (New East). The municipality approved the building the neighbourhood in 1996. Opponents of the plan called for a referendum because of the possible negative effects for the ecosystem of the IJmeer. A referendum was held 19 March 1997 and although the majority of votes were against construction, an insufficient number of votes were cast so construction was allowed to proceed. Construction (1997–present) The first residents moved into their houses on Rieteiland in November 2002. Since then, Haveneiland and Steigereiland have also been populated. Due to a slow take-up of properties, phase 1 construction was delayed for some years so IJburg was not completed in 2012 as originally planned. A new phase in construction began in 2014, new groups of houses were built on Rieteiland and the north-east part of the Haveneiland island is being extended to accommodate new buildings as well as a beach. When complete, the IJburg neighbourhood will have 18,000 homes for 45,000 residents with schools, shops, leisure centres, restaurants and a beach and provide employment for 12,000 people. Geography Islands IJburg consists of six artificial islands built in the IJmeer. They are Steigereiland (Jetty island), Haveneiland West and East (Marina island) and the three Rieteilanden (Reed islands), Large, Small and East. The construction of, and building on these six