Vacant Land Adaptation in Detroit's G7 Neighborhoods

Abstract

United by a shared history of depopulation and disinvestment, deindustrialized cities across the United States and around the world are engaged in a shared effort to develop holistic solutions to the complex challenges of vacancy, poverty, and blight. As the largest U.S. city to lose more than half its population, people around the world are looking to Detroit as they seek to understand the causes, symptoms, and solutions to urban decline. This legacy of decline is writ large across Detroit’s sprawling landscape, where a surplus of vacant land contributes to declining property values, increased crime, decreased vitality of residential and commercial areas, and general decline of the physical environment, with negative implications for both mental and physical well-being. While Detroit residents have long been transforming vacant land to improve their neighborhoods, the scale of the prob - lem far surpasses the capacities of a dwindling population and tax base. Largely in response to these grassroots efforts, there is increasing interest in urban greening and productive landscapes as a means for addressing the complex social and economic challenges of depopulation and vacancy. As the city now begins to revitalize amid increasing public and private investment, Detroit has the opportunity to implement land-based solutions to improve public health and well-being, sustainability, and environmental justice. Within this context, the City of Detroit’s Gratiot and 7 Mile (G7) Neighborhood Framework Plan provides a platform for the testing and development of land-based strategies to transform vacant land into a community asset. Through the iterative processes of site analysis, community engagement, case studies, and literature review, this report identifies four primary goals for adapting vacant land in the G7 Planning Area: [1] Healthy, Thriving Neighborhoods (promoting physical and mental well-being); [2] Safe and Activated Open Space (designing for visibility, presence, and care); [3] Sustainable and Productive Landscapes (enhancing ecosystem services); and [4] Resilient and Empowered Communities (building social capital). Each of these goals is accompanied by a number of recommendations that highlight strategies for adapting vacant land into a community and environmental asset. The aim of this work is to illuminate pathways toward improved quality of life and sustainability, not only for G7 and Detroit, but for shrinking and legacy cities elsewhere.