The construction of the EcoVillage has finally begun. The bulldozers arrived in late January to dig the trenches for the pipes and to prepare the road infrastructure. The infrastructure should be complete by mid-May. This will make it possible to transfer the 42 sites to the new home owners who will start building their homes from June onwards. The final group of home owners are a mixed group from all backgrounds and they span the age brackets. Due to the fact that some people have bought double stands and two of the stands will be bought by the Sustainability Institute for residences, 35 houses will be built. Of the 35, 16 have been sold at one fifth of the market price to people who qualify for a government housing subsidy. The remainder of the sites have been sold at market-related prices to people from diverse backgrounds. The subsidy sites, however, form part and parcel of the village and are not located in a separate space. This makes the Lynedoch EcoVillage the first socially mixed new development in South Africa which is, in addition, designed using state-of-the-art ecological design technologies. There are also a range of different kinds of businesses being set up, including tapestry weaving, a renewable energy consultancy, a Guest House for visitors, a community bank, and farming amongst others. Lynedoch is becoming a vibrant local economy and an example of a sustainable ecology.
