Greening Up Vacant Lots

From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:

Philadelphia, like other industrial cities, has seen many of its neighborhoods -- especially in lower-income areas -- fall victim to population loss and crime. A pervasive atmosphere of insecurity has plagued those residents who remain, while deterring revitalization efforts.

At the recent Smart Growth Conference in Washington, D.C., Blaine Bonham (on right) noted that there are some 40,000 vacant lots in Philadelphia, up from 31,000 in 1999. With the City engaged in extensive demolition of derelict, unsafe, abandoned buildings "the amount of vacant land coming online has been overwhelming."

Besides being a constant, visible reminder of hard times, vacant lots have often been the repositories of illegal trash dumping. As Bonham put it, "there are big costs to the city of Philadelphia" for extra sanitation and policing needs, "an additional $1.8 million spent annually with little impact."

In an effort to dramatically turn things around, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society -- working in cooperation with city government -- has developed an innovative and aggressive citywide program to clear out vacant lots, and keep them clean.

Yes, you read that right, the Horticultural Society. Founded in 1827 by "old guard" Philadelphians, the Society has far outgrown its high society roots. Some thirty years ago, explained Bonham (the organization's Executive Vice President), the Society began plowing some of the revenue generated

from its huge annual flower show (largest in the nation) into community vegetable gardens. This marked the birth of the group's Philadelphia Green program.

In recent years, the community garden focus has been expanded to take on the mission of dealing with neighborhood blight -- exemplified by the city's thousands of vacant lots.

In the New Kensington neighborhood, the Horticultural Society has worked with residents to develop a series of community gardens on vacant lots along the neighborhood's main artery. As Bonham recounted, "we wanted to make them highly visible so the neighborhood knew something positive was happening."

But even with the gardens, an enormous inventory of vacant lots remained. From a citywide perspective, "this is something that can't be dealt with by local volunteers," noted Bonham. Instead, a more systematic transformation of vacant lots to mowed grass and trees was needed. Contractors, funded by the City, have been hired to clean up and maintain the reclaimed lots. In some ways, this is also a jobs program, with some 100 workers tackling the vacant lots. See the screenshot below from the Philadelphia Green web site.

For Bonham, the investment in greening up vacant lots -- and keeping them green -- more than pays for itself. He pointed to a University of Pennsylvania study that found that the city's investment has been far outweighed by increased property tax values and assessments.

As the study concluded: "We find that vacant land improvements result in surrounding housing values increasing by as much as 30%, an astonishingly large impact. New tree plantings increase surrounding housing values also substantially by approximately 10%. In the New Kensington area this translates to a $4 million gain in property value through tree plantings and a $12 million gain through lot improvements." (see Susan Wachter, "The Determinants of Neighborhood Transformations in Philadelphia," 2004; link to pdf of her paper).

Buoyed by Philadelphia Green's success, the City administration has now included a $3 million line item in its budget to support the program. What's more, Bonham notes, local officials appreciate that greening up vacant lots is an essential "infrastructure investment."

Additional note from PCJ Editor Wayne Senville: Joe Schilling of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute, moderator of the Smart Growth Conference session, cited the National Vacant Properties Campaign as a useful resource for those looking for ways of dealing with vacant lots.

Take a look also at my Jan. 10 posting, Real Time, Real Value about online vacant property information in Richmond, Virginia.