A SMALL SEWAGE TREATMENT SYSTEM, a school and banking facilities are listed among plans for Government's big housing project in Coverley, Christ Church.

There will also be a day care agency, medical facilities, a convenience store, a restaurant and a recreational centre.

Postal services, a playground, a football field and a cricket pitch are also in the plans.

Caribbean Homes Ltd, which is managing the project for the National Housing Corporation (NHC), has given some details of what to expect.

About 1 026 two- and three-bedroom houses are planned under the project that started in July, 2008, and is scheduled to end December, 2013.

Construction of the sewage treatment plant and the houses is proceeding apace.

The first 50 homes in what is listed as the biggest housing project launched by Government are nearing completion. They should be ready in January, according to Caribbean Homes Limited.

The development is a "zero lot line" one. Most zero-lot line homes are built directly on the edge of a lot's outer boundary (hence the name).

They are usually only about ten feet apart and share a common fence with a neighbour. They generally have either small front yards or small backyards and just a thin strip of turf for side yards.

Minister of Housing and Lands, Michael Lashley, said the zero lot line would grow in prominence because it was a smart way of utilising scarce land resources.

The Coverley project complements several conventional housing schemes that will put more than 300 homes on the market by early next year.

"We have completed 30 houses at Marchfield, St Philip," Lashley told the DAILY NATION recently.

"These are allocated already.

"We have completed 44 at Work Hall [St Philip], already allocated. Some 51 are done at Greens, St George, soon to be allocated.

"We have completed 40 houses at Four Hill, St Peter, and 17 at French Village [St Peter]."

According to Lashley, work is "in progress" on 64 houses at Constant, St George.

Construction of rental units at locations including Country Road, St Michael, as well as plans for distributing 500 house lots at $5 each and for "rent-to-own" houses are progressing well, Lashley reported.

"We can now give 100 lots of the $5 lot programme to Barbadians towards the end of this year," Lashley said.

"These lands will go into the hands of first-time home owners - people who are looking for house spots, who went to the NHC over the last 14 years and were turned back," he said. (TY)