The Cleveland Vacant Land Opportunity Tool, or CLEVLOT, is a website and tool that aims to make buying and repurposing some of the city’s abundant vacant land faster and easier. Community forums, informative pop-up clinics, and a revised pricing system are also part of the initiative.
By Jenna Thomas ● Community Journalism, Development, Government ● January 24, 2024
It’s not often that educational panel discussions are standing room only, but that was the case last month when experts weighed in on the future of the Cleveland Land Bank at a forum at Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Public Affairs and Education.
Why so much interest in vacant land? Well, for one thing, there’s a lot of it. In fact, according to presenters at the forum, the city’s vacant lots could cover three airports, with a combined 30,000 lots spanning 6,000 acres. That works out to about one-eighth of the city. Be sure to bring out that handy fact next time you’re trying to sell your in-laws on moving here (or not).
Cleveland has for decades been saddled with vacant land that creates blight, becomes a nuisance for crime, litter and other types of negative activity, and costs the city to keep up. The number of lots increased dramatically following the 2008–2009 housing recession, when thousands of homes were demolished and the land ended up being transferred into the city’s land bank.
Part of the problem has been that in the past, the process for repurposing vacant land — getting it into the hands of a new owner who will put it to productive use, whether that’s for housing, urban farming, or something else — hasn’t been very efficient or effective in many parts of the city. As a result, there are large swaths of vacant land lying fallow in many city neighborhoods.
Now, Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration is trying to reform the land bank to make it more responsive to the needs of individual neighborhoods and more effective at repurposing land. Their main tool for doing so is called CLEVLOT, or the Cleveland Vacant Land Opportunity Tool. CLEVLOT is a website and online tool aimed at helping people search for and buy vacant land in the city (if you’re interested in learning more, fill out this contact form or call 216-250-2638). As the room filled and CSU staff dragged out stacks of additional chairs, it quickly became apparent that there was a deep and widespread interest in making better use of the city’s empty land.
Most Clevelanders have witnessed the deterioration of vacant land from overgrowth, illegal dumping, or abandoned and crumbling infrastructure. Vacant lots can have less visible impacts on a neighborhood, too, like polluting the air and water. For example, the demolition of old housing stock can release toxic lead paint and asbestos fibers into the air and ground.
For the most part, Cleveland’s surfeit of vacant land is a result of historical redlining policies, or the discriminatory practice of denying mortgages and other services to people based on their race or ethnicity, compounded by the 2008–2009 foreclosure crisis. “You don’t have to go very far in history to see that the effects of redlining still are here today. They are present in so many ways, but especially in our vacant lots,” said Cleveland’s Director of Development Alyssa Hernandez.
Under the current system, land bank applications can take over 60 days to process, according to forum speakers — though often it is taking much longer. The city adds about 600 lots to their inventory every year, while selling around 400. In 2023, the city received 362 land bank applications and processed 171, according to public records provided to The Land. Cleveland’s vacant land crisis continues to grow.
That may be changing soon. In 2021, the Western Reserve Land Conservancy (WRLC) was awarded a grant from the U.S. EPA to address the environmental impacts of vacant land on the southeast side of Cleveland. The outcome of these funds is meant to be more than a plan that will collect dust on a shelf. CLEVLOT will ultimately result in an open-source database and planning guide for vacant land reutilization in the city.
The CLEVLOT project focused on the neighborhoods of Central, Kinsman, Union-Miles, Mount Pleasant, Buckeye-Woodhill, and Buckeye-Shaker. These neighborhoods are home to a quarter of the vacant lots in the city and are the focus of the mayor’s Southeast Side Strategy. Despite having a central focus area, the outcomes and updated processes would benefit the entire city, forum participants said.
Since the project kickoff in February 2022, WRLC has gathered dozens of stakeholders to identify key challenges to the city’s process for repurposing vacant land. Tim Dehm, planning and design specialist with WRLC, described what the new process would look like for a resident interested in creating a community garden on a vacant lot in their neighborhood.
“One day, Lucille was invited to attend a vacant land clinic at her local library branch, where an advisor helped her learn more about vacant land reuse,” he told the audience. “Later, she applied online through the land bank’s website, where it was easy to keep track of her application progress. The advisors at the library also introduced her to community members who helped her make a plan and apply for a small grant.”
Mikki Smith, executive director of Little Africa Food Collaborative, an organization that seeks to distribute inexpensive, healthy food to Cleveland residents living in poverty, participated in the CLEVLOT engagement process. She also went through an application process under the current system. Despite already leasing out and providing programs on several lots in the city, Smith has been waiting months to take ownership of the land she applied for.
“We submitted applications 8 or 9 months ago, some to continue leasing so we can continue to grow the food, and one to acquire a lot,” she told The Land. “The process has taken a very long time. I’ve been trying to get them to see the intent of what I’m trying to accomplish — the lots have been sitting there for the last 30 years.”
Smith’s complaint gets at the heart of what CLEVLOT is trying to fix. According to the panelists, once CLEVLOT is fully implemented and a streamlined process is created, vacant land in the city could be sold to new owners more quickly. The new application would be completely online, with a tracking feature so that applicants would know where they are in the process.
Under an improved system, people would also have online access to parcel-specific surveys and recommendations for development. For example, lots near fire hydrants may be identified as strong candidates for urban agriculture as they will have access to a water source; lots sitting on top of major utilities may not be a great candidate for tree plantings. With information in one place, residents and community organizations can be more strategic and proactive about land development.
CLEVLOT would also create a community forum where people can post questions, share ideas, and solve problems together, building systems of mutual support aimed at helping one another. Similarly, the city would encourage local block clubs and resident groups to participate in vacant land planning. Pop-up clinics hosted by libraries would offer experts to provide advice and give feedback on applications in real time. Additionally, libraries would be home to maps, plans, reports, and more, addressing the digital divide and improving access to information.
As part of policy updates, a new pricing model will be introduced. For decades, most Cleveland residential vacant lots have been treated the same and have sold to new owners for $100–$200, regardless of where they’re located, and even if their market value is significantly higher. As opposed to previous years when all lots were treated the same, the new model recognizes the opportunity for the city to make more money on lots in neighborhoods like Tremont and Ohio City, where there is more demand and lots on the private market frequently sell for $75,000 or more. Following legislative approval, lots will be sold at $10 per square foot in Market Rate Neighborhoods (where the housing and commercial markets are strongest), $3 per square foot in Middle Neighborhoods (where they are, as the name suggests, in the middle or in between strong and weak), and 70 cents per square foot in Opportunity Neighborhoods (where they’re weakest).
“Now, what this does in a lot of ways is it is helping to incentivize taking up those lots in Opportunity Neighborhoods where there is a higher concentration of lots, but it’s also not about giving those lots away,” Hernandez told participants at the Levin forum.
Some of the CLEVLOT tools are already live. You can visit a virtual help desk weekly on Mondays from 1–2 p.m. to speak with a variety of experts including representatives from the Cleveland Land Bank, the USDA, Ohio State University, and the Cleveland Parks & Greenspace Coalition. The trackable online application will also go live soon.
“We’re working with the city right now and expect that to roll out at the end of the first quarter of this year. Hopefully we’ll be able to do some user testing and make adjustments as needed,” Dehm said.
But the work of filling Cleveland’s vacant land will not end with the rollout of CLEVLOT. Dehm and the WRLC recognize the ongoing work necessary to implement and maintain the tool.
“We had this really collaborative process with a lot of community members to come up with solutions,” Dehm said. “Now it’s going to be an iterative process to see the project stay afloat over the long term. And there were a lot of parts of the vacant land use process that we weren’t able to address with this grant. Success will require more work in order to make the process really fluid and efficient for everybody.”
Shenur Kushner, special projects officer at Slavic Village Development, echoed those sentiments.
“I see it as one part of the puzzle. One problem is that the land bank applications are so inefficient, but neighborhoods like Slavic Village, Union-Miles, and Mt. Pleasant are going to need more than CLEVLOT to see an increase in quality housing. Still, I do think there’s something to be said about trying to learn and grow and build — it’s a paradigm shift from management to building.”
To learn more about CLEVLOT fill out this contact form or call (216) 250-2638.
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