Vacant Land Elements Examples
Vacant land stewardship requires four fundamental elements: knowing your community’s context, having clear goals and plans, committing to collaboration, and enacting facilitative policies. These four elements will look different in every community, but they are all critical components of implementing successful vacant land stewardship. To learn more about these elements and discover some next steps for your community's learning journey, explore the element examples below.
Element Type
Organization
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.
Read More »
City of Rochester
Rochester 2034 is a 15-year comprehensive plan to improve the community. Rochester’s population losses over the last several decades have left a legacy of vacancy – an urban challenge common to Rust Belt cities. Key takeaways in this work note that half of the vacant parcels in Rochester are owned by the City; all City-owned vacant lots are maintained at a ‘clean and green’ standard that exceeds many other cities…
Read More »
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.
Read More »
University of Missouri Extension, Division of Applied Social Sciences
This report provides an overview of urban agriculture and local food system resources and practices across the United States and parts of Canada, with a primary emphasis on providing resources that can encourage and support urban agriculture in Missouri’s metropolitan areas.
Read More »
Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation
The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) has produced a number of planning resources and guides to assist neighborhood groups with grassroots efforts to stabilize neighborhoods.
Read More »
Detroit Vacant Property Campaign
The Vacant Property Toolbox provides a broad overview of considerations in working collaboratively to reduce vacancy, and includes strategies for community organizing, marketing, and managing vacant lots. Community organizations may find this handbook useful in addressing vacant properties, while residents may find some of the organizing and planning information useful as they navigate working to address vacancy as individuals.
Read More »
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.
Read More »
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.
Read More »
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.
Read More »
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.
Read More »PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and PA Downtown Center
Developed through a partnership between the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Pennsylvania Downtown Center this handbook provides strategies for communities to utilize their natural, outdoor recreational resources as assets to grow and enhance their community and economic development.
Read More »East Trenton Collaborative
The East Trenton Neighborhood (ETN) Brownfields Area-Wide Plan provides site-specific recommendations for 12 brownfield sites with an emphasis on two catalyst sites that have the greatest likelihood of development and impact. Cities dealing with high rates of vacant land and contamination may find this plan helpful in understanding the opportunities and challenges of putting properties back into productive use in a safe and healthy way.
Read More »Trenton Neighborhood Restoration Campaign
In 2014, the Trenton Neighborhood Restoration Campaign (TNRC) organized the first truly comprehensive, parcel-level survey of all the vacant properties in Trenton — mapped, published, and updated on this interactive website. The TNRC also organized residents and local groups to draw attention to the problems caused by vacant and abandoned properties.
Read More »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.
Read More »Grounded Strategies
The PGH Mobile Toolbox is a library of landscaping tools available for free to resident groups and community organizations in Allegheny County to use in the care and stewardship of vacant land and community green spaces.
Read More »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.
Read More »Grounded Strategies
Lots to Love is an online guide for community organizations and residents in the Pittsburgh region who are interested in transforming vacant lots into well-loved spaces. This website, created by the nonprofit Grounded Strategies, connects users to resources and ideas to support reuse of vacant lots, and provides information about organizations currently doing this work in the Pittsburgh region.
Read More »American Forests
The Tree Equity Score tool calculates a “tree equity score” for all 150,000 neighborhoods and 486 municipalities in urbanized areas across the continental United States.
Read More »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…
Read More »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.
Read More »