By John Kiesewetter
Enquirer staff writer

LIBERTY TWP. - By this time next week, the Lexington Manor subdivision will have a new name - Liberty Estates - as Ryland Homes gets ready to start selling there again.

Homes will be on the market Sept. 18, Ryland said Thursday.

All but three of the 32 lead-contaminated lots have been certified as clean by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which declared the 26-acre subdivision a Superfund site in May 2003. California-based Ryland agreed to pay for Greater Cincinnati's largest residential hazardous lead cleanup last year after being sued by homeowners.

"We had the ability to go ahead and put lots up for sale, but we elected to wait until all the restoration was complete," said Winfield Ziegenfuss Jr., Ryland vice president for land operations.

The Lexington Manor name will be dropped, he said, to avoid confusion with the site's development company, Lexington Manor Inc. Ryland sued developer Harry Thomas Jr., an officer of Lexington Manor Inc., in June saying that "false information" had been provided four years ago about the former Hamilton Sportsman's Association skeet-shooting range.

"With the ongoing litigation, we just felt strongly that we needed to differentiate ourselves from Lexington Manor Inc. as much as possible," Ziegenfuss said.

The two-story homes, built between 2001 and 2003, will be sold for an average $250,000 - the same price they were sold at when built, said John Adams, Ryland's Ohio Valley division president. Each will come with Ryland's 10-year new home warranty, he said.

That price range won't cover Ryland's costs. The homebuilder repurchased 27 homes in the last year for $7.8 million - or $291,872 per house - and spent an estimated $2.5 million for lead removal. Ryland also has refurbished all the interiors and improved landscaping.

Ryland calls the homes "better than new," Adams said. "Where else in this marketplace can you see houses ... 100 percent finished, all sitting there with pristine lawns?"

At least 14 people are on a waiting list for the homes, Adams said. Some have picked a specific house, he said.

"These individuals understand that ... they're assured they won't ever have to worry about this (lead contamination) happening again in their community," Adams said.

Steve Renninger, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on-scene coordinator, said the cleanup was done on schedule, without any surprises. When three Palomino Lane lots are finished, about 23,000 tons of soil will have been treated and hauled to the Epperson Waste Disposal landfill in Williamstown, Ky., said Wayne Lawrence, Ryland's clean-up site manager.

About 23,000 tons of lead-tainted soil also were removed by the U.S. EPA from Kings Junior and Senior High School in Warren County this spring, Renninger said.

E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com