The 2019 Vacant Land group aka “Emerald Tapestry” met at the Coffee House on Bellflower on Jan. 20 to discuss its role in the city’s ReImagine a More Sustainable Cleveland project. The group will participate in Cleveland City Planning Department’s eight subcommittees that will determine the best projects for the city to pursue to reuse vacant land. Committees will start meeting in February and explore the intersection of vacant land with water quality, recreation, transportation, local food and renewable energy production among other focus areas. Sonia Jakse, a landscape designer hired to work with the city on vacant land strategies as part of the ReImagine project, will coordinate the committees, which will also consider barriers such as land assembly and policy.

The 2019 Vacant land group was invited to attend committee meetings which also will be attended by city planning staff, the new Cuyahoga County Land Bank and technical experts from OEPA and other groups in areas of soil hydrology, phytoremediation, brownfields, urban design and environmental justice.

The role of the committees is to weigh in on the specifications of the request for proposals (RFPs) that the city will issue to private firms to develop projects that ‘reimagine’ better uses of vacant land. The city and ReImagine champions such as Neighborhood Progress, Inc. expect the RFPs to lead to ‘catalytic’ projects that may include restoring wildlife corridors, large-scale market gardens, a commercial greenhouse, and building wind farms possibly by connecting multiple parcels in the city.

The 2019 Vacant Land group also heard from Marlane Weslian at Slavic Village Development about some of the 58 ReImagine pilot projects that will break ground this spring. Slavic Village has seven pilots ranging from homeowners expanding side lots to community gardens, pocket parks and even a savannah. “We have a long history of community gardens,” Weslian said, “now we want to focus on gardens for personal consumption, for health.”

Weslian added that work sessions with experts are just as valuable as land. “What was helpful was when NPI brought in technical experts like the phytoremediation group (GTECH) to share what they’re doing in Pittsburgh.”

Community development corporations (CDCs), faith communities, and even the 2010 US Census public hearings can be venues for sharing ideas between the ReImagine pilot projects, she added.

Dr. Mark Chupp, professor at the Mandel School for Applied Social Sciences at Case, and a 2019 vacant group member has been working on a list of ideas and documenting how the group can improve the community engagement aspects of the ReImagine project. The group brainstormed ideas, including:

• A bus tours and/or self-guided tours of the 58 pilot projects to coincide with the 2010 Sustainability Summit (September) and the National Vacant Properties Conference in Cleveland (October)
• Community forums to share lessons between the pilot projects and CDCs
• Report on the activities of the eight ReImagine/City planning committees (on the GCBL 2019 blog).

Jakse also noted that the city will re-do the ReImagine Pattern Book, with illustrated examples of how and where to ‘green’ your property, as a web accessible ‘how-to’ manual.

To see a distillation of community engagement ideas for ReImagine a More Sustainable Cleveland from Dr. Chupp, click here.