Vacant Land Elements Examples

Home » VL Elements » Page 2

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

Collaboration
PGH Mobile Toolbox
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 »
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.

Read More »
Context, Plans
Lots to Love
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 »
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.

Read More »
Context
Tree Equity Score
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 »
Plans
Rochester 2034 Comprehensive Plan
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 »
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…

Read More »
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.

Read More »
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.

Read More »
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.

Read More »
National Zoning Atlas
Cornell University Legal Constructs Lab

The National Zoning Atlas enables users to visualize the prevalence and nature of regulatory constraints, particularly on housing. The Zoning Atlas is an important tool to help people understand what their local zoning codes say; compare codes across jurisdictions, illuminate regional and statewide trends, and strengthen national planning for housing production, transportation infrastructure, and climate response.

Read More »
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.

Read More »
Vacant Property Task Force
Grandmont Rosedal Development Corporation

The Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation (GRDC)’s Vacant Property Task Force is a resident-led initiative to target and prevent blight and vacancy in the five neighborhoods GRDC serves. Working closely with resident volunteers, the task force monitors vacant homes with the goal of ensuring that every property is properly maintained.

Read More »
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.”

Read More »
Baltimore Environmental Equity Partnership
Baltimore Environmental Equity Partnership (BEEP)

Baltimore Environmental Equity Partners (BEEP) aims to foster cross-sector collaboration to improve community and environmental well-being and sustainability in neighborhoods of East Baltimore. BEEP is comprised of nonprofit and government organizations working on community development, community organizing, environmental and health advocacy, and social justice.

Read More »
Allegheny Green Web Collaboration
Allegheny Green Web Collaboration

The Allegheny Green Web Collaboration is a network of more than 20 nonprofit recreation and conservation organizations with a vision for connected parks, open spaces, and trails throughout Allegheny County to enhance the quality of people’s daily lives, promote healthy living, and encourage increased engagement with nature. The collaboration manages a website providing an interactive narrative of their efforts.

Read More »
Nature-Based Placemaking
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 Brownfields Area-Wide Plan
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 »
Restoring Trenton Vacancy Map
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 »
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.

Read More »