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Heerhugowaard
Coordinates: 52.67° N 4.85° E
Country	Netherlands
Province	North Holland
Area (2006)
- Municipality	39.97 km²  (15.4 sq mi)
- Land	39.25 km² (15.2 sq mi)
- Water	0.71 km² (0.3 sq mi)
Population (1 January 2007)
- Municipality	49,833
- Density	1,270/km² (3,289.3/sq mi)
	Source: CBS, Statline.
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Website: www.heerhugowaard.nl

Heerhugowaard (West Frisian: Heerhugoweard, Heregeweard or De Weard, Dutch Low Saxon: Heerhugoweerd) is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland.

Contents 1 Population centres 2 History 3 Building 4 Accessibility 5 Heerhugowaard-Alkmaar-Langedijk 6 Surroundings 7 Local government 8 Sources 9 External links

The municipality of Heerhugowaard consists of the following cities, towns, villages and/or districts: Broekhorn, Butterhuizen, De Noord, Draai, Frik, Heerhugowaard, Kabel, 't Kruis, Veenhuizen, Verlaat.

Around the year 800 the area of the modern municipality of Heerhugowaard was covered in peat fen. Because of peat-digging and storm floods many lakes developed in the region, including the Heerhugowaard. The name is derived from lord ('heer' in Dutch) Hugo van Assendelft who was killed by the West Frisians in this area in 1296. After two storms in 1248, the abbey of Egmond, which had much property in this region, built the Schagerdam dam at Schagen. This became part of the West Friesland Ring-dike, which protected the pentagon Schagen - Alkmaar - Medemblik - Enkhuizen - Hoorn.

Uncontrollable increase of the lake had been prevented. In the 17th century private investors decided to drain the lake to create farmland. In 1630 the polder was drained and was 39.0 km², and the land was divided among the initiators. In contrast to e.g. the Beemster, the quality of the new land was very disappointing. In 1674 one even put forth made a serious plan to refill the polder with water, reasoning that the area would be more profitable as fishing water.

In the course of time the population has grown. In 1960 Heerhugowaard had 6,800 inhabitants, in 1975, 25,000, in 2004 47.239 and in 2005 48,267. Heerhugowaard in the seventies was the fastest growing municipality of the Netherlands that has even been. It is intended that Heerhugowaard after all extensions will have about 55,000 inhabitants. The number of 60,000 will likeliest never be reached, because there are problems with categorising its own youth. As young people leave their parents' homes, they prefer to go to other places such as Alkmaar or Amsterdam. The major part of the inhabitants lives in so-called Vinex-villages. The rural core of the North lies to the Middenwaard. The core of the south is at Stationsweg at the old church, which ends up on the middle course. Also in the polders there are small hamlets. The greater part of the town is new buildings. The best rural core is in the villages of Centrumwaard and De Noord. Heerhugowaard has a small shopping area in Centrumwaard, and a large shopping centre in the district of Middenwaard. There are also several drink shops, clubs and also a cinema. Since 2004 there has been a coffee shop in Heerhugowaard. This coffee shop however, has problems with fierce opposition from the local population, who have bombarded the coffee shop with stones several times. Heerhugowaard has a number of districts which has been this way set up the same as in Almere, for example the writer district, the tree district, the planet district, and the nature area of Butterhuizen. In two of the newest districts, called Stad van de zon I and II (= City of the Sun I and II) the energy supplies for a considerable part comes from solar energy.

Heerhugowaard has good connections with the neighbouring places. Buses go to and from Alkmaar-Bergen NH and Wieringerwerf. Also Heerhugowaard has Interliner links. Heerhugowaard is on the railway routes to Hoorn and Den Helder, Alkmaar - Amsterdam - Nijmegen, and Alkmaar - Haarlem - Den Haag. Heerhugowaard is on the n242 road.

Heerhugowaard with Alkmaar and Langedijk are linked to operate in, amongst other things, house construction, education, nature and such. The intention was that these three municipalities once would form a city (the HAL-city), but that has not yet been realised. However, all three municipalities press for building on the last free pieces of land which lay between the three municipalities to transform it into suburbs. As a result, an urbanised area has been established is quite large for the region. The complete city will count approximately 181,000 inhabitants after all extensions. This would be the second biggest "city" of North Holland, after Amsterdam.

Urbanisation has spread across the region. The area has more or less grown attached to other places, and counts as complete agglomeration approximately 305,000 inhabitants. This agglomeration stretches widely from Uitgeest up to and including the villages in the municipality of Harenkarspel, and of Bergen, up to and including Obdam.

The surroundings of Heerhugowaard are very various and beautiful. Not far from Heerhugowaard you will find several landscapes. East of the agglomeration, there are different kinds of flower bulb fields. They are not as large as the fields in the north of Noordholland, but there are larger fields to be seen you drive as if you were in the Intercity from Heerhugowaard to Den Helder. Halfway through the eighties 61 hectares of woodland were planted, the "Waarderhout". Of course you will also find much farmland in the region of Heerhugowaard.

The municipal council of Heerhugowaard consists of 29 seats, which are divided as follows:

• Burgerbelang - 5 seats
• CDA - 5 seats
• VVD - 5 seats
• HOP - 4 seats
• PvdA - 4 seats
• GroenLinks - 3 seats
• D66 - 2 seats
• ChristenUnie - 1 seat

• Groenedijk, T. (2000). Nederlandse plaatsnamen. Slingenberg Boekproducties, Hoogeveen, Netherlands, 2000.
• Van de Ven, G. (redactie) (1996) Leefbaar laagland (4th, revised printing). Uitgeverij Matrijs. p. 33-35, 57 en 131-136.
• Statistics are taken from the SDU Staatscourant

• A map of the municipality Heerhugowaard