With new road, Lexington neighborhood makes its comeback

When Lexington opens a new section of Oliver Lewis Way between Versailles Road and South Broadway Friday, it will also be paving the way for a brighter future for the Davis Bottom neighborhood.

A nonprofit organization is overseeing construction of new affordable housing in the neighborhood, through which the new road runs.

The Lexington Community Land Trust will hold an orientation at 6 p.m. Thursday on buying a home through the organization. The orientation will be held at the Carver Center, 522 Patterson Street, Suite 111, and will cover how community land trust homeownership works and how people can qualify for it.

“Community land trust homeownership is great for working households — allowing a low mortgage payment and the ability to build wealth,” Barbara Navin, executive director of the trust , said in a news release.

Five single-family homes in the new Davis Park neighborhood have been built and sold. Now, Navin said, 11 more affordable three- and four-bedroom single-family homes are ready to be built on De Roode Street and Nathaniel Court.

The energy-efficient homes will range in price from $114,114 to $127,374, she said.

Six lots are ready for construction, and five more will be ready by April, Navin said. She said the homes will be built as people apply to buy them and are approved.

More than 20 families in the Davis Bottom neighborhood were relocated to make way for the Newtown Pike extension project, which began more than 10 years ago and is being completed in phases.

Newtown Pike and Oliver Lewis Way connect Interstates 75/64 with South Broadway near the University of Kentucky campus.

A planned final section will go from Scott Street to South Limestone.

This story was originally published September 20, 2017 at 5:04 PM with the headline "With new road, Lexington neighborhood makes its comeback."