Vacant Land Elements Examples by Type

Policy

Four Fundamental Elements Overview »

Line drawing illustration of a two-story house with a garage and trees, overlaid on a large key shape, with the text Community-Wide Urban Renewal Homestead Program below.

Policy

Urban Homestead Program
City of Buffalo - Office of Strategic Planning

Buffalo’s Urban Homesteading Program enables eligible residents to purchase publicly owned land at a below market rate. Properties that are within designated Urban Renewal Areas are eligible for inclusion in the Urban Homestead Program at the sole discretion of the Office of Strategic Planning, provided that the property is not needed for public purposes and no qualified buyer is attempting to purchase the property.

Infographic highlighting vacant lot reuse accomplishments, including 212 lots returned to productive use since 2010, 90 lots returned in 2012, 13 new gardens created, and the development of Iron Roots Urban Farm, illustrated with photos of community gardening, excavation work, greenhouse activities, and the Adopt-A-Lot program sign.

Policy

Lots of Green Reuse Program
Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation

Lots of Green was the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC)’s vacant land reuse program, which operated cleanups and volunteer workdays in strategic neighborhoods, as well as vacant land reuse classes, microgrant programs, and competitions that catalyzed new projects around the city.

Screenshot of the City of New Orleans nola.gov website showing the Department of Code Enforcement's Mow to Own Program page.

Policy

Mow-To-Own Program (New Orleans)
City of New Orleans

New Orleans’ ‘Mow-to-Own’ Program invites homeowners adjacent to blighted lots to apply to take care of the empty spaces with the goal of purchasing them down the line.

Policy

Garden Insurance
Grow Pittsburgh

Liability insurance is often required to access land — such as the vacant lots owned by the City of Pittsburgh — or to participate in certain programming A Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance policy is the first line of defense against many common claims (such as bodily injury or property damage) that could occur in a community garden or on other sites included in the policy.

Official seal of the City of Flint, Michigan, founded in 1855.

Policy

City of Flint Zoning Ordinance
City of Flint

In 2017, the City of Flint amended its zoning ordinance to create new designations, including a designation that recognizes green reuse as the dominant land use strategy in certain areas of the city.

Policy

Adopt-A-Lot (Los Angeles)
Free Lots Angeles collective

Adopt-A-Lot is a pilot program that enables community groups in park-poor Los Angeles neighborhoods to adopt city-owned vacant lots and transform them into community-serving public spaces.

A screenshot of Toledo, Ohio neighborhoods with vacant lots highlighted in green and yellow.

Policy

Toledo Grass Mowing Program
City of Toledo, Ohio

With the help of 52 community mowing partners, the City of Toledo, Ohio’s grass mowing program works each summer to keep parks, neighborhoods, and boulevards neat and tidy.

Screenshot of the City of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania website page for the Adopt-A-Lot Program, showing a program description, link to the application, a frequently asked questions section, and contact information.

Policy

Adopt-A-Lot (Harrisburg, PA)
City of Harrisburg

The City of Harrisburg’s Adopt-A-Lot program allows people to “adopt” city-owned vacant lots for the purpose of maintaining and beautifying them.

Policy

Love Your Block Mini-Grant Program
City of Buffalo

The Love Your Block Mini-Grant Program offers small grants to neighborhood-based organizations in our target areas for volunteer projects that address vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties.

Cover of the City of Philadelphia Policies for the Sale and Reuse of City Owned Property, final version dated April 20, 2012, with a two-tone blue street map of Philadelphia in the background.

Policy

City of Philadelphia Policies for the Sale and Reuse of City Owned Property
City of Philadelphia

The City of Philadelphia provides a path to license, lease, and purchase land from the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA), the Department of Public Property, and the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation (PHDC) and supports the use of vacant land for urban agriculture that improves the quality of life in the City.

Policy

Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development’s Brownfield Remediation and Development Program
Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development’s (DECD)

The Brownfield Remediation and Development Program provides $24.6 million in state funding to remediate 41 VAD properties across Connecticut.

Plans, Policy

Terra Firma Vacant Lot Toolkit
Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative

The Terra Firma Vacant Lot Toolkit provides extensive background on vacant lots in Chicago while laying out actionable goals and steps for others to transform parcels into spaces of dignity. Created by the Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative, this toolkit sets out to provide a blueprint for various stakeholders that are interested in embarking on this work.

Policy

City of Danville Zoning Ordinance
City of Danville

The City of Danville zoning ordinance provides a number of useful tools for vacant lot development, including allowing urban gardening in most districts with a special permit, and creating a designation for districts where new development will infill parcels with vegetation and landscaping.

Policy

Open Baltimore
City of Baltimore

Open Baltimore is an online data portal that provides the public with access to hundreds of datasets and interactive dashboards, including a Vacant Building Dashboard. The Vacant Building Dashboard shares data on the number of vacant building notices, building rehabs, and demolitions. The data can be sorted and filtered by geographic bounds, time increments, and even “housing market typology.”

Plans, Policy

Vacant Land 215 Toolkit
Grounded in Philly

The Vacant Land 215 Toolkit is a guide for both new and current gardeners in Philadelphia looking to use land productively, understand how to gain legal access to City-owned vacant spaces for community food production or open space, or understand what legal protections are available for existing community gardens.

Policy

Pittsburgh Land Recycling Handbook
Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh Land Recycling Handbook includes an analysis of distressed land in Pittsburgh, its impact, and the processes for managing it, as well as an operational plan to create a more coordinated and effective land recycling system.

Policy

City of Camden Zoning Ordinance
City of Camden

The City of Camden zoning ordinance has many goals that align with vacant land reuse and revitalization, including “to conserve a corridor of natural open space (greenways) primarily along waterways within the City” and “to emphasize the need for a wide variety of open space and demonstrate its value as an essential community asset.

Policy

City of Rochester Vacant Lot Sales Program & Map of City-owned Real Estate
City of Rochester Division of Real Estate

This website assists residents in accessing or purchasing one of the 3,400 City-owned vacant lots in Rochester for temporary or permanent projects. Some lots are sold for large development projects, many are used as community gardens, and many more are…

Plans, Policy

Vacant Lot Handbook (Milwaukee)
City of Milwaukee Department of City Development

With the help of many dedicated citizens and professionals, the Department of City Development in Milwaukee has put together a handbook of creative reuse strategies for city-owned vacant land.

Policy

Side Yard Program
Cuyahoga Land Bank

The Cuyahoga Land Bank (CLB) developed their Side Yard Program for eligible applicants to purchase vacant lots to expand their yards or businesses. This is one of their most successful and popular programs that has helped hundreds of Cuyahoga County residents utilize vacant land in resourceful and imaginative ways.

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