LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A group of Louisville residents is trying to save a block of homes in the Meriwether neighborhood from being demolished this month.
A majority of the homes on Lawton Court have been purchased by nearby engineering and manufacturing company, CEPEDA. Recently, the company has made plans with the city to have nearly ten of the homes torn down.
Jody Dahmer, along with a handful of others, is trying to stop that from happening.
“We’re worried that other corporations, especially hotels, can come in and buy up blocks of houses at a time and demolish within 30 days and we don’t think that is fair to the residents, we don’t think it’s fair to the renters,” Dahmer said.
Dahmer said CEPEDA plans to expand its business footprint into the area where the homes currently sit. CEPEDA also owns a grass lot next to the homes, which is encased in a barbed wire fence — something Dahmer doesn’t want to happen to Lawton Court.
The group of community organizers is now in the process of gathering at least 200 signatures for a petition to designate the homes as historical. This would mean they could not be torn down. Dahmer explained this is what the Old Louisville neighborhood did to protect homes.
“We need 200 signatures. We are well on our way, then we are going to get this in front of the Metro Council and we are going to have some of these policies be discussed in the city government,” Dahmer said.
The group wants changes made to how demolitions are handled in Louisville, so that what is happening in Lawton Court can’t happen elsewhere too.
Lawton Court is also one of the few developments left in Louisville not designed around cars. Built in the early 1900s, all the homes face inward toward a grass walkway.
“I understand that some homes can’t be saved but if we are talking about the policy as a whole city, every neighborhood could have this happen to them and we don’t want to see that,” Dahmer said.
While many of the homes on Lawton Court are vacant and have already been sold, there are still residents living there.
“Four of these homes are still owner occupied, three of these homes still have renters in them, from what we understand the renters were not given notice before they moved in that the neighboring houses were going to be demolished,” Dahmer said.
For people like Sarah Fisher, who lives two blocks away, news of the demolition came as a surprise, only finding out after seeing it on Facebook. She’s now canvassing her neighborhood, informing her neighbors and asking for them to sign their petition.
“I’m still talking to people in my neighborhood who have no idea this is going on,” Fisher said.
Fisher recalls overwhelmingly the people she’s spoken to are against the homes being torn down.
“Us as a community, our neighborhood, we’re not against their growth, we think it’s a wonderful thing that they want to be engaged and grow their business in our community, we are primarily against them demolishing our desperately needed housing stock,” Fisher said.
The group has until noon on Wednesday, August 17, to file their petition with the Louisville Historic Landmarks and Preservations Districts Commission. If the commission believes the homes should be designated as historical, it will be voted on by the Metro Council. The council will get the final say on if the homes will be saved or demolished.