HDA Breaks Ground at Leeco
The planned 16-home subdivision is located near Hyden, KY
WOOTON, Ky. – On Thurs., Dec. 19, despite the mud and cold winds tearing across the landscape, the Housing Development Alliance’s (HDA) Hope Building crew dug the first two footers on property that will become the Leeco Road Subdivision.
The property, which is located just off old Highway 80 in Leslie County, has 16 lots in a desirable location near Hyden, the county seat and where most people live and work in the area. Each lot measures about half an acre.
“We’ve had a tremendous amount of interest in this project since it was announced in October,” said HDA Intake Specialist Michael Cassell. “We currently have over 80 applicants who’d like to live in that subdivision.”
Leslie County, unlike the three other counties (Breathitt, Knott, and Perry) served by HDA, did not suffer widespread damage due to the 2022 flash flood event, which devastated much of the region. While not a high-ground site, like the state’s Chestnut Ridge and Skyview communities, where HDA will serve as one of the primary builders, the new community at Leeco Road will, however, offer low-income families in Leslie County the opportunity to own new homes they can afford on flat land that will never flood.
"This project has been two years in the making," said HDA Executive Director Scott McReynolds. "We have wanted to build new homes in Leslie County, but our biggest obstacle was finding land where we could build them. We're grateful to the Leslie County Fiscal Court for helping make the Leeco Road development possible. Now, 16 low-income and workforce families will be able to call this beautiful area home."
The project finds its beginning just as HDA plans to get started on home construction in planned subdivisions throughout all of its counties – something HDA officials are calling “The Big Dig.”
“We expect to be building at Leeco Road, Blue Sky, Chestnut Ridge, Skyview, and Highland Avenue in Breathitt County simultaneously,” McReynolds noted. “It looks like 2025 could be our biggest year yet, and I have challenged our staff to build more homes this year than ever before!”
All of these projects – save the one at Blue Sky – have faced delays over the last 2 years mainly due to land development issues and the lengthy time it now takes to have an Environmental Review Record (ERR) approved by HUD. The ERR is a requirement HDA must meet in order to have HUD funding released to begin each project, but ever since the 2021 tornadoes in western Kentucky and the 2022 floods in eastern Kentucky, HUD has experienced a backlog of such requests, resulting in some projects being pushed back for several months.
The Leeco Road ERR was finally approved in mid-December, and HDA wasted no time in getting the first footers in the ground.
Of the first two new homes on the site, the first is being built for a very low-income homebuyer using HDA’s floor plan “The Deborah,” while the second is a spec home and is expected to have a qualifying homebuyer soon from HDA’s income-based Homeownership Program.
HDA officials hope the new subdivision will also serve as a driver of economic development in Hyden and Leslie County, where over 30% of the population lives in poverty.
“This subdivision at Leeco Road is going to result in 16 families that are more financially stable – 16 taxpayers, 16 customers, 16 families that may have children in the local school system,” McReynolds said. “We’ve seen it happen at Gurney’s Bend in Hazard, and we look forward to seeing how this new neighborhood will bring economic uplift to another area that needs it most.”
Those interested in having a home built at Leeco Road or in another location in Leslie County should email michael@hdahome.org or call the HDA office at 606-436-0497.
