A new value is being ascribed to vacant land in Cleveland's effort to burnish its brand beyond moribund post-industrial dumping ground to a green city on a blue lake. Here’s how the framers of this vision are setting the stage for vacant land reuse efforts which will take the spotlight at the National Vacant Properties Conference in Cleveland in October:

Issues of vacancy, abandonment and foreclosure have had a profound effect on the well-being of the nation's neighborhoods and residents. These negative forces have mobilized community development professionals and policymakers in Cleveland to develop innovative efforts to turn the tide and fight for our neighborhoods.

Cleveland is trying to introduce a new narrative: It insists the tsunami of foreclosures from the subprime lending fiasco that devastated whole neighborhoods from 2006 to the present will not defeat us. No other major American city—other than nearby Youngstown—has been so quick to embrace a comprehensive strategy to ‘shrink’ the city—in the best sense of the word. This means making choices that support more “densely built, mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods connected by urban farms and amenities the neighborhoods couldn’t afford when we had 800,000 people,” City Planning Director Bob Brown said yesterday.

Brown and his cohorts from Community and Economic Development departments at the city led eight committees tasked with turning the 2007 ReImagine a More Sustainable Cleveland study into an action plan. After spending the better part of 2010 identifying areas where vacant land is ripe for urban agriculture, experiments with plants to reduce toxins in soil, slowing stormwater and generating small-scale renewable energy, the committees gathered yesterday to draw conclusions and recommendations.

For example, a map of vacant properties layered with the preferred locations for solar and wind energy production are based on simple filters like wind speeds of 14 mph or higher and elevations of 800 ft. or higher. 

Running parallel to the ReImagine a Greater Cleveland steering committee—which met last week to review the work and to vote on ‘catalytic’ reuse projects—the urban planners, community development and nonprofit leaders and experts in emerging fields like urban agriculture and natural stormwater systems—identified a number of policies and ways the city can tie ReImagine to existing efforts, such as the 2020 Citywide Plan calling for an expansion of greenspace by 775 acres. Cleveland lags its Midwestern peer cities, the report found, in acres of parkland per 1,000 residents (Cleveland has 6.9 while Pittsburgh has 8.8, Cincinnati 14.5 and Columbus 14.6 acres per thousand)  

On the small end of the scale, a newly formed Land Bank Disposition Committee has been launched with the heads of city departments who will weigh in on the best reuse proposals for land bank properties. “This allows policymakers to weigh in and coordinate the future uses of land for urban agriculture or stabilization,” said assistant planning director Jim Danek.

Urban agriculture advocates wondered how—beyond small incentive programs like the Garden for Greenbacks grants—the city can scale up the use of vacant land to provide food and jobs for residents. Its list of recommendations include:

To address the access to land for growing, one recommendation is to expand the use of the Cleveland Land Bank property for urban agriculture from one to five years.

A local food assessment will be finalized next week. It will identify the business opportunity for Cleveland’s urban growers, such as which specialty crops have the best market here. The assessment will also address supply of land—how much vacant land is needed to supply 2%, 10% and one day 25% of local food.

Yesterday, questions arose: “How can (the study) be used to build a retail network for local food”? One proposal is for the County Board of Health to survey any business with a food license and build a database of what fresh food is available in food desserts (large swaths in the city without grocery stores). The database can inform a new local food promotional effort to be led by Growhio, a 2019 initiative that won an Ohio Specialty Crop grant from the state to promote in the city local food.

Tie outreach and education efforts for local food to venues like churches and mosques. Tim Smith of the Cleveland Greenhouse Project suggested that the Diabetes Association of Cleveland is working on a new initiative to teach nutrition in the city.

A good discussion ensued that supply and distribution networks for local food need to be developed to work harmoniously with local food education.

More community-supported agriculture—such as the CSA at Cleveland's first urban farm, Blue Pike, and another for urban growers being championed by Peter McDermott—could begin to fill in some gaps.

Convincing a local grocer like Dave’s to buy Cleveland-grown food may require a urban grower co-operative to fill the shelves consistently.

OSU Extension and Tri-C are in discussions for a one-year certification program in urban agriculture (University of Toronto was suggested as a model) that would build off OSU Extension’s Market Garden program.

A lack of clarity on what level of soil contamination—and what type of testing—is acceptable for growing food was a lesson from the ReImagine vacant land pilot projects. As a result, a proposal is in with USDA to develop a soil condition database and testing methodology, said Taggart.

(Since I couldn’t sit in on the other seven group discussions at the same time yesterday, the city has promised to share the notes from each group, and to allow us to publish the final report after it has been accepted by city departments affected by the policy and rule changes).