Landscape Architect Articles

Philly Fights the Scourge of Vacant Lots11-30-06 | News

Philly Fights the Scourge of Vacant Lots

Philadelphia Green?EUR??,,??s Vacant Land Stabilization program refurbishes the ubiquitous urban blight of vacant, abandoned lots.

The population shift from cities to outlying areas of many aging industrial cities leaves behind acres of abandoned, trash-strewn land. Philadelphia Green, a program of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, has supported the development and care of community gardens, neighborhood parks and public green spaces in the city of brotherly love since 1974. Philadelphia Green works with community-based organizations and the city’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI) to turn vacant lands into community assets. In 1990, the city had 40,000 vacant properties. Today, it has about half that.

There are two basic ways NTI contracts with Philadelphia Green: The first is the Vacant Land Stabilization Program. Maitreyi Roy, a landscape architect with Philadelphia Green, explains this program starts by clearing numerous weedy and trashed lots, then planting grass, trees and erecting fences. All the work is done by landscape contractors, who are also required to maintain the site for the next growing season. In the past six years, nearly four million square feet of land has undergone this transformation. During the summer of 2006, six of the 10 contractors hired were part of community organizations. The contractors are also providers of lot maintenance through the Community-Based Vacant Land Maintenance program, another NTI contracted program, that manages the regular cleaning of 2,500 unimproved lots in 10 neighborhoods.

The second front is a project called Community LandCare, which maintains those stabilized lots. The sites are assigned to land maintenance by Philadelphia Green as part of the contract with the city of Philadelphia. More than two million square feet of land are in this system.