Land conservancy wants to clean up vacant lots littering the city

There are more than 30,000 vacant lots in the city of Cleveland, many of them frequent targets of illegal dumping. A 2018 survey by the Western Reserve Land Conservancy found that 587 of 14,680 vacant parcels on a portion of the city’s southeast side, or about 4%, were found to have illegal dumping. These same areas also deal with storm water runoff, flooding, lack of adequate tree canopy, and urban heat islands that make them as much as five degrees hotter in the summer. 

Vacant lots and illegal dumping can impact the health of nearby residents, studies show. Residents of the city’s southeast side, where much of this illegal dumping occurs, have a lower life expectancy and a higher prevalence of asthma, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and mental health issues. These neighborhoods, which include Central, Kinsman, Buckeye-Shaker, Buckeye-Woodhill, Mt. Pleasant and Union Miles are all predominantly communities of color. 

These are also not fast-developing areas like Ohio City, University Circle, and Tremont. So, what can be done to clean up these vacant lots and make them productive again? That’s the question the land conservancy and several nonprofits will be investigating over the next couple of years, thanks to a $200,000 grant from the US EPA’s Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem Solving program.

Learn more about buying a vacant lot in Cleveland

Matt Zone, Director of Thriving Communities at the WRLC, says the crux of the plan is to use an environmental justice framework to pilot a “vacant land management strategy” on the southeast side. Right now, thousands of vacant lots go unmaintained. The goal of the program is to turn empty lots into cared-for side yards and green spaces with trees, flowers and benches more quickly.

Will the effort be successful? Zone, a former council member who led revitalization of the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood, said the nonprofits leading the project have a successful track record. Thriving Communities, which WRLC created 11 years ago in the wake of the foreclosure crisis, has a history of helping the city with demolishing vacant properties, improving vacant lots, planting trees, and creating parks and gardens. Local CDCs, Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University, and of course the city of Cleveland will help with the project. 

“Part of our urban work is figuring out how to repurpose vacant land in conjunction with CDCs (community development corporations),” said Zone. “We help to engage the community in a resident-led effort to co-create magical green spaces.”

From Hough to Old Brooklyn

With tens of thousands of vacant lots spread across the city, there’s a lot of opportunity to do just that. Since it was founded in 2006, WRLC has created 190 parks and preserves and conserved more than 70,000 acres across Northeast Ohio, according to Zone. More recently, it has begun planting thousands of trees across the city.

While it may seem unusual for an agency with its roots in rural land preservation to be lending a hand with blight removal in the city, Thriving Communities actually formed to help the city recover from the 2008-09 foreclosure crisis, and it continues that mission to this day by helping Cleveland repurpose vacant land.

Last month, the city council voted to spend $150,000 to again hire WRLC to work with the city’s Vacant and Abandoned Property Action Council, or VAPAC, on strategies for dealing with vacant land and properties in the city. Zone said whereas the agency in the past focused on demolitions, it’s now turning to strategies for reusing vacant lots. 

The group’s newest green space has transformed the site of one of the city’s worst tragedies into a park and memorial for lost loved ones. On November 6th, Thriving Communities cut the ribbon on the Garden of 11 Angels on Imperial Avenue in the city’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood. In addition to the memorial honoring the lives of the 11 women murdered by serial killer Anthony Sowell, the project also includes a community garden.

WRLC, who worked with local groups such as the Mt. Pleasant Ministerial Alliance, raised more than $500,000 to support the project. “We step in and support where there are needs from members of the city council who want to do green space projects,” said Zone. 

Other recent examples of WRLC’s work include: 

• Brighton Park on Pearl Road in Old Brooklyn, where the group raised $1.3 million to convert a contaminated landfill site into a 26-acre green space with a mile-long walking path

• Derek Owens Memorial Park in Mount Pleasant, a tribute to a fallen police officer

• A partnership with Famicos Foundation to build a park behind Thurgood Marshall Recreation Center on Hough Avenue

• The Ubuntu Gathering Space, a project being planned on the site of a former Saab dealership at East 103rd and Shaker Boulevard with Burten Bell Carr Inc. and East End Neighborhood House

The WRLC has helped residents like Althea Francis, who owns a daycare center on Cleveland’s east side, to improve the land next to her building where a two-family house was torn down. WRLC started last spring and will finish rehabbing the yard this summer. “It’s much safer for the kids now,” said Francis.

At Calvary Hill Church of God in Christ on Woodhill Road, the group is working with Pastor Ernest Fields and his wife Iris on enlarging and enhancing the Woodhill Community Garden. The plot started on the church’s property, but has since moved to a former vacant lot at Woodhill and Rosehill Road. WRLC built a fence around a 95-by-45-foot portion of the garden to keep out the “riff raff” — in this case, small animals who were eating the plants. They also built a patio that is being used for community programs. 

“One of our goals is to have the community involved in learning about gardening and healthy eating,” said Fields. 

Reforesting the city

One of WRLC’s goals is to help Cleveland reclaim the title of “The Forest City,” and the group believes planting trees on vacant lots can help realize this goal.  

Through its work with the Cleveland Tree Coalition and the Reforest Our City (ROC) initiatives, WRLC is trying to help Cleveland address its tree canopy loss. Healthy tree canopy coverage for a city is at least 30 percent, Zone said, and Cleveland’s is currently 18 percent, with more lost every year.

The group is trying to raise $100 million to replenish the canopy. They’re making some headway — since 2014, the ROC program has distributed and planted more than 15,000 seedlings and trees in the Cleveland area, according to Lizzie Sords, WRLC’s manager of urban forestry programs. Additionally, since 2015, ROC has trained more than 300 people through its Tree Steward program, which teaches residents to plant and grow healthy trees.

“Through our ROC work we’ve thwarted [tree canopy decline] a little bit,” Zone said. “But we’re losing 97 acres every year, and at this rate, Cleveland’s tree canopy will drop to 14 percent by 2040, unless we get our act together.”

Many of these new trees may be planted on vacant lots throughout the city, transforming them into passive green spaces that residents can enjoy. 

Even as the work continues, for training participants like Ilona Perkins of Glenville, which has lost much of its tree canopy, there’s now a seed of hope. 

“They’ve been instrumental in helping me beautify vacant land on my street and discuss the importance of urban forestry and tree maintenance with my neighbors,” said Perkins.

Learn more about Western Reserve Land Conservancy and Thriving Communities here: https://www.wrlandconservancy.org/whatwedo/advocacy-and-research/

This project is part of Connecting the Dots between Race and Health, a project of Ideastream Public Media funded by The Dr. Donald J. Goodman and Ruth Weber Goodman Philanthropic Fund of The Cleveland Foundation.

Christopher Johnston has published more than 3,000 articles in publications such as Christian Science Monitor, Scientific American and Time.com. His book, Shattering Silences: New Approaches to Healing Survivors of Rape and Bringing Their Assailants to Justice (Skyhorse) was published in February 2018.