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.

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.

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.

Cover of the University of Missouri Extension publication Urban Agriculture: Best Practices and Possibilities, featuring a photo of a community garden with the St. Louis skyline and Gateway Arch visible in the background.

Plans

Urban Agriculture: Best Practices and Possibilities
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.

Youngstown, Ohio bulletin board-style graphic explaining vacant land stabilization, with before and after photos of a neglected lot transformed into a maintained lawn, a handwritten description of the process, and an index card listing budget items totaling an estimated $2,600 per lot.

Plans

Vacant Land Reuse Guide (Youngstown)
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.

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

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.

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.

Cover of the Vacant Property Toolbox Second Edition, featuring a photo of a vacant Art Deco brick building on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, published by the Detroit Vacant Property Campaign.

Plans

Vacant Property Toolbox – Second Edition
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.

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.

Context, Plans

Chicago’s Vacant Lots Near Transit: An ETOD Deep Dive
Elevated Chicago

In Elevated Chicago’s report, a case study of two areas in Chicago near transit hubs discuss the impact of vacant lots as well as the potential they hold for the area.

Context

Perceptions of Detroit vacant lot greening designs related to depressive symptoms and household flooding
University of Michigan, School for Environment and Sustainability

A study led by the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan-Dearborn aims to understand the connection between vacant lot maintenance, such as greenwater storm infrastructure (GSI), and subsequent mental health effects.

Collaboration, Context

New Orleans Green Infrastructure Map
Groundwork USA

The New Orleans Green Infrastructure Map is an ArcGIS map, created in partnership with Groundwork USA, Groundwork New Orleans and several community partners, seeks to document the various greening initiatives across the city of New Orleans.

Context, Plans

PHS Green Equity Initiative
Pennsylvania Horticulture Society (PHS)

The Green Equity Initiative by the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society (PHS) is a proposal for environmental neighborhood investment in Philadelphia in the form of neighborhood-based greening solutions.

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.

Context

EPA Region 5 Brownfields Map
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

The EPA Region 5 Brownfields Map is an ArcGIS visual of various brownfield redevelopment success stories in the Midwest. The map has 30 examples with descriptions of projects including environmental assessments, redeveloping spaces into medical complexes, housing, a museum, etc..

Context

Greening America’s Smaller Legacy Cities
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

The Greening America’s Smaller Legacy Cities from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a policy-focused report on how local governments in small and midsize older industrial cities can adopt and implement comprehensive sustainability initiatives.

Collaboration

The Garden Resources of Warren (GROW) Program
Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership

The Garden Resources of Warren (GROW) Program provides technical support leadership development, and educational programming for Warren’s community gardens and operates the Warren Farmer’s Market. Operated by the Trumbull Neighborhood Partneship,

Plans

StormStore Terra Firma Pilot Project
Metropolitan Planning Council

A pilot report from the Metropolitan Planning Council and Emerald South explore how greenwater storm infrastructure (GSI) can be implemented based on local sewer conditions and vacant lot availability for efficient stormwater management.

Collaboration, Plans

Washington Heights Land Re-Use Strategy
Calhoun Land Bank Authority

Led by the Calhoun County Land Bank Authority the Washington Heights Land Re-Use Strategy seeks to revitalize the Neighborhood Planning Council 2 (NPC2) area of Battle Creek, Michigan. Led by the Calhoun County Land Bank Authority

Vacant Land Elements Examples

Element Type

Organization