41 Remaining Empty Hope Hill Lots Donated to City

Samaritans Purse will donate 41 empty lots in the Hope Hill subdivision to the City of La Grange. The La Grange City Council signed a memorandum of agreement with Samaritan’s Purse following an executive session at the City Council meeting Monday night, March 8.

“We will work to develop a housing program,” said La Grange City Manager Shawn Raborn. “It’s going to take a number of years. We are going to work with housing providers.

Raborn’s said Samaritan’s Purse mission with Hope Hill was to provide housing for local families who lost their homes in the 2017 Hurricane Harvey flood. He said the organization believes they have accomplished that mission and are ready to move on.

“(Samaritan’s Purse) is in the process of closing down this project,” Raborn said. “We will work with developers to build housing.”

The idea for Hope Hill came to life following the devastating historic flood of 2017, which left hundreds in La Grange homeless. The La Grange Ministerial Alliance initially collected relief donations. A group of volunteers formed the La Grange Area Disaster Recovery Team, which took over relief efforts from the Ministerial Alliance. That group later became known as the Fayette County Disaster Recovery Team (FCDRT). FCDRT developed a plan to build a new neighborhood for flood victims on higher ground and away from the river. They purchased land along Horton Street.

The development faced concerns from neighborhood residents and sometimes-heated discussions before the La Grange City Council. In February 2020, FCDRT transferred ownership of the property to the international Christian non-profit Samaritan’s Purse. Since then, Samaritan’s Purse has completed 20 homes.

“We will involve the community to find out what is the best utilization of this asset,” Raborn said. “I think we’ll form some committees as this moves forward. This is the first step of many. It’ll be a way of getting the local community to determine what is the highest and best use.”

The agreement stipulates that future homeowners cannot sell their property for the first five years. The agreement also says the new homeowners will not have to pay for the land under the future homes.

“(U)pon the conveyance of any of the Remaining Lots by the City or a Developer to any Homeowner, no consideration of any kind shall be charged to the Homeowners for the land portion of the lot,” the agreement states. “For clarification, this provision does not preclude Homeowners from being charged the fair market value for any home or other improvements constructed on the lot when it is conveyed to them, but homeowners shall not be charged for the lot itself since the lots were donated as a free gift to the City.”

Raborn said the 41 undeveloped lots include space for a park. He said at least one of the lots is too small to build a house upon. The others, however, are all suitable for home sites.