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once characterized the community was gradually replaced by an increasingly lower-
income population. Likewise, the retail and commercial vitality evident along Jefferson
Avenue on a larger community scale and along Chestnut Avenue on a more
neighborhood-oriented scale declined in response to changing demographic conditions.
Since the late 1960s, the City of Newport News has been active in supporting the
preservation, revitalization, and redevelopment of housing opportunities in the Southeast
Community. Initial local efforts involving the Redevelopment and Housing Authority,
private developers, and non-profit housing developers ranged from facilitating multi-family
residential redevelopment activity at Walker Village in the area of 25th Street and Jefferson
Avenue to significant single-family housing development at Thompson Square centered
on the 700 block of 22nd Street. However, the reduction of large scale Federal assistance
for redevelopment beginning in the 1970s and continuing into the 1980s resulted in a
greater reliance on modest housing rehabilitation assistance for homeowners and limited
in-fill single family housing development. During the 1990s, the City expanded
revitalization efforts in the community by requiring larger lots for single-family housing,
initiating extensive road and infrastructure repairs, increasing condemnation and
demolition activities and supporting new single-family development at Madison Heights.
The original single-family homes in the Southeast Community incorporated front
porches as an important design feature and utilized the street as a focal point of
neighborhood activity. Although large numbers of the original homes remain throughout
the community, the condition of the homes may vary significantly from block to block.
Nevertheless, street activity, such as walking and talking with neighbors, is still quite
evident in much of this community.
The Southeast Community falls under the umbrella of the Neighborhood
Conservation District (NCD) which functions as an overlay district designed to preserve
older residential neighborhoods. The intent of the overlay district was to eliminate the
construction of one story single-family homes on narrow 25-foot wide lots which
previously created overcrowded conditions and blight. In 1997, a comprehensive rezoning
brought the zoning in line with the adopted comprehensive plan. The minimum lot width
for single family detached residential construction was changed to 50 feet, thereby
eliminating the practice of building single-family detached homes on 25-foot wide lots.
Although the majority of housing in the community consists of single-family
dwellings, there exists a significant amount of multi-family housing. When the multi- family
rental housing is considered in conjunction with the large amount of single-family homes
serving as investor property, the area has the lowest rate of homeownership in the City
of Newport News. The multi-family housing generally consists of either public housing of
World War II or Korean War era vintage significantly modernized over the last several
decades or rental communities assisted with affordable housing bonds and/or project-
based assistance from HUD.
Community commercial development is concentrated along Jefferson Avenue
which has been the primary commercial arterial in the Southeast Community since theJump to an indexed page (228 of 228)