A year after then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin came to Ewing to announce it, the Western Lee Housing Project has collected more grant money but is still waiting on the sewer line it needs. County Administrator Clint Carter told the Board of Supervisors in July that the housing “will be contingent upon the Western Lee Sewer Project.” If the sewer’s land acquisition goes through, he said, ground might be broken “toward the end of next year,” according to the July 21 minutes.
Here is the project at a glance, from the county’s minutes and state announcements:
- Where: 5692 Wilderness Road in Ewing, about five miles southwest of Lincoln Memorial University’s DeBusk Veterinary Teaching Center.
- What: 115 homes, made up of 55 townhomes, 38 duplexes, 9 triplexes and 13 cottages, for LMU students, faculty and staff and for local residents.
- Infrastructure: 6,610 feet of new water lines, 6,476 feet of new sewer lines, 37,584 square yards of roadway and an expected 118 water and sewer connections.
- Total cost: $54,570,945, according to the county’s 2025 grant resolution.
Four grants, so far
The first public money came with the announcement on September 19, 2025. The state committed $2.5 million for the housing infrastructure, $1 million from the Appalachian Regional Commission and $1.5 million from the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization program. The state said that money unlocked $49 million in private investment from LMU. That money is to help sustain and grow LMU’s veterinary teaching center, according to a Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development news release.
Two more awards have followed. The housing department’s list of Community Development Block Grant awards includes $2,000,000 for “Western Lee Housing Production,” the cap for that kind of project. And the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission approved $800,000 from its workforce housing pilot program on January 12, 2026, according to a county resolution adopted 5 to 0 in April.
Together, the public grants named so far come to $5.3 million, by The Lee Daily Register’s count. The block grant request was the first housing production application ever to come out of LENOWISCO, the regional planning district. Its planning director told the board so in August 2025, according to the August 19, 2025 minutes. The minutes through September 15, 2026 record the county’s application for that grant but not a vote accepting it.
The sewer comes first
The homes depend on public sewer reaching western Lee County. LMU board chairman O.V. Pete DeBusk made the same point at the 2025 announcement. “The sewer line the Governor is helping with, that is the key to everything,” he said, according to an LMU news story.
That sewer project is now buying easements. In August, county staff mailed compensation letters to landowners. The Army Corps of Engineers, which pays 75% of the cost, raised concerns about how much funding was available, and the board added $50,000 in local money, as The Lee Daily Register reported this week. On September 15, the board accepted a proposal from the engineering firm RDA to prepare the easements, according to the September 15 minutes.
From 18 months to late 2027
The expected timeline has stretched. At the August 2025 hearing, when Supervisor Roger Waddell asked when the project would begin, LENOWISCO’s Jimmy Adkins gave an estimated timeline of 18 months. By February 2026, Carter described the housing project as being in “the study and environmental stage,” and in July he pointed to late 2027 for a groundbreaking.
Paperwork has moved in the meantime. In July, the board approved an agreement for LENOWISCO to administer the project’s abandoned-mine-land money. The minutes do not say who will build or own the homes, and nobody spoke during the public comment period at the 2025 hearing.
