Reuse of Urban Wastes Indonesia

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CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY

Reuse of Urban Wastes

Policy Applications and Recommendations for

Sustainable Reuse of Vacant Buildings and Vacant

Lands for Cleveland

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2. Vacancy and City of Cleveland

2.1. Negative Impacts of Vacant Properties

The properties that are not in use and empty are called vacant properties. Owners of these

properties are not able to or not willing to pay their taxes and basic utility bills. Therefore these

properties are abandoned. Vacant, or abandoned properties may include industrial buildings;

residential buildings such as single family homes; and vacant lots (Alexander, p. 4).

Prof. James Q. Wilson articulated the Broken-Window theory to notice the vacant

property in a neighborhood can easily become a center of illegal acts: “If a window in a building

is broken and is not repaired, the other windows of the building will be broken”(Schilling, Ford,

Kildee, Lind, & Logan, Toledo at the Tipping Point, 2008, p. 12). Vacant buildings can also be

used as drug dealing centers that brings about crime and social issues.In Austin Texas, a study

focused on the crime rates in areas in vacant buildings showed that vacancy doubles the

incidence of crime (Alexander, p. 7).

Another issue of vacant buildings is neighborhood fires. Because of being uncontrolled,

an abandoned building is defenseless to burnout.This situationcould harm the whole

neighborhood. Twelve thousand fires in vacant buildings are reported by The US Fire

Administration and according to this annual report, the vacant property fires caused 70 millions

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4 Vacant houses have a negative, indirect impact on cities in two economic perspectives;

taxes and surround property values.First, taxes cannot be collected from abandoned properties

but they achieve public services. Consequently, local governments lose their local sources of

money.And also they spend their current money for the issues that contribute to vacant

properties. Second, vacancy in a city or neighborhood reduces the current property values of

housing units or businesses. According to the Temple University Center for Public Policy

researchers found in 2001 that abandonment reduces the property values of other

surroundingbuildings(Temple University, 2001). Figure 1 shows the relationship among the

property value reductions based on the distances from vacant property in Philadelphia.

According to this study, the results show that the nearest properties to an abandoned property

affected most based on property values.

Figure 1 Reduction of Property Values

Source:Temple University, Blight Free Philadelphia, 2001, p. 22

2.2. Vacant Properties in City of Cleveland

Cleveland is a former industrial city and due to the population loss the problem of

vacancy for this city is inevitable. In 1950, Clevelandwas the sixth largest cityin the US.

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5 the breakpoint in the year of 2005 is noticeable. This point shows the steep decrease of

population due to the mortgage crisis. The foreclosures in Cleveland cause vacant buildings

throughout the city.Data source for Figure 2 was obtained from American Fact Finder-Annual

Population Estimates(American Community Survey, 2011).

Figure 2 Population Decline in Cleveland

Source: United States Census Bureau 2005-2009 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

Table 1 Occupancy and Vacancy Rates

Source: United States Census Bureau 2005-2009 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

Table 1 shows the numbers and changes of housing units based on their owner status. The

number of occupied housing units is lowest in year 2010. And also, again in this year the number

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6 Moreover, the Appendix (section 6) provides a map that shows the distribution of vacancy and

occupancy in Cleveland based on census track boundaries(The U.S. Census Bureau, 2011),(NEO

CANDO, 2010).

2.3. Importance of Reclaiming Vacant Properties for Sustainable Development

Vacant properties offer new resources for the city. Rather than planning, reclaiming

vacant property isalsoimportant for protecting the unused land. Vacant properties are

community wastes and reusing them is an act of recycling. By recycling vacant properties, the

future land can be protected from unsustainable growth and also reclaiming vacant buildings

provide protection to nonrenewable resources (Walljes & Ball, 1997, p. 197).

The featured benefits of the reclaiming vacant units are generally economic advantages.

The reclaiming activities for vacant units can reform the real estate values of surrounding units.

At big scale, outcome could be the restoration of housing market at local levels (See Figure 1).

Another important economic benefit is the reduction of local government spending for fire

department, police department, and/or demolition practices(Treuhaft, Rose, & Black, 2009, p. 4).

In brief, reclaiming vacant properties important for sustainable development, in terms of;

 Social Justice: Reuse of vacant properties can provide the distribution of taxes and public services equally and enhances the quality of life and social well-being.

 Economic Development: Reclaiming policies and actions can provide new economic incentives, job opportunities and eliminates the unnecessary cost of new land use and

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 Environmental Quality: Reusing vacant properties can provide nonrenewable resource protection, improveair quality, and with the right choices of solutions such as providing

green spaces in vacant properties can reduce the urban run-off(Walljes & Ball, 1997, p. 197).

3. Policies for Reclaiming Vacant Buildings

3.1. General Policy Stages

The implementation of policies about vacant buildings could be varying among the cities

because each city has its own culture and economic power. This distinctiveness can impact the

outcome of the policies for different cities. On the other hand, the study groups, researchers, and

experts have a consensus of the policy framework as it can be shown in Figure3 (Schilling, The

Revitalization of Vacant Properties, p. 20)

Figure 3 Revitalization CycleCourtesy of (Schilling, The Revitalization of Vacant Properties, p. 20)

Stabilization. Stabilization activities can be divided into two perspectives. The first

perspective is prevention activities for stabilizing vacant buildings.Enough information should be

given to mortgage borrowers for future possibilities of foreclosure. Lending institutions has an

important role for aiding people who are at the margin position of foreclosure (Schilling, Ford,

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8 Second perspective is the activities for stabilization after the vacancy happened. An

inventory management for owners of vacant buildings can provide and evaluations of owner’s

financial conditions are also important for implementing further strategies. Enforcements and

abatements for disburden of owners are the initial strategies for combating the vacant buildings

in cities and neighborhoods (Schilling, The Revitalization of Vacant Properties, p. 21).

Rehabilitation Resources. These strategies provide various numbers of financial and

technical sources to owners of vacant buildings. With these aids, owners are able to revitalize

their vacant units. At local government level, credits for low income houses, state loans, and

community development block grants (CDBGs) can be provided for vacant building owners. On

the other hand, non-governmental organizations such as community development organizations

(CDCs) can buy the vacant building from the owner and own the responsibility for management

and resale of the building. Nonprofit organization could provide educational and technical

assistance to owners for rehabilitation practices (Schilling, The Revitalization of Vacant

Properties, pp. 21,28).

Property Transfers or Demolition. As a city wide condition, the vacancy problem could be

at excessive levels. Under these situations, demolition could be the only decision but this

decision could bring about new problem; vacant land. The transfers of the abandoned building to

the CDCs could create more efficient solutions for rehabilitation activities. After demolition

practices vacant parcels could be transferred to the land banks. These land banks operate the land

for reconstruction activities with nonprofit and profit seeking sectors. Today some county or city

land banks work with CDCs to rehabilitate vacant housing units such as Cuyahoga County Land

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Long-term Revitalization. After demolition or during rehabilitation practices, city

authorities should consider the smart growth and sustainable development principles for the long

term results of the revitalization.(Schilling, The Revitalization of Vacant Properties, p. 22).

3.2. Policies for Cleveland and Land Banks

In 2008, Cleveland State University, College of Urban Affairs published a report that

presents alternative policy strategies and sustainable solutions for Cleveland’s vacancy problems.

Cleveland has a rate of vacant buildings at 11.7 % (Schilling, Ford, Kildee, Lind, & Logan,

Toledo at the Tipping Point, 2008, p. 8). The writers of the report point out that this problem

could be a chance to redevelop the city based on sustainable perspectives and more efficient

uses. And they offer a set of policy strategies based on three general captions; (1) preventing

abandonment and (2) gaining control (Hexter, Greenwald, & Petrus, 2008, pp. 3,4).

As being initial policy step for each city, preventing from abandonment could be the best

combat type for Cleveland for vacancy. Overlapping idea from the policy strategies for

abandonment is counseling for foreclosure avoidance and maintenance of untended structures.

Identification of the owners, who is at the edge of foreclosure, is the crucial policy frame. Next is

providing advices and solutions. These could be attained by direct help from non-profit or

quasi-governmental organizations. For maintenance practices, the Albany, NY model (Section 3.2)

could be useful and effective. Although, code enforcements designed by cities are not aggressive

solutions, with the presence of enforcements, the allocation of organizations and control of the

studies can be done easily (Hexter, Greenwald, & Petrus, 2008, pp. 5,7).

Opportunity Homes Project, was initiated in 2008, has a goal to change future of 321

homes with $20 million investment. This project provides new land use patterns for vacant lands

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10 vacant structures.Opportunity Homes Project was designed by Neighborhood Progress Inc.,

Cleveland Housing Network, and CDC contains prevention, rehabilitation, and demolition

activities (see figure 4). The expected outcomes are rehabilitation of 150 homes, prevention of

300 houses from foreclosure risk, and demolition of 300 housing units. In April 2009, 26 housing

units have been reclaimed and 46 of housing units (Treuhaft, Rose, & Black, 2009, p. 52).

For low-income people, city has implemented Affordable Housing program. This

program provides, an opportunity for low-income residents to own a home, which is already

rehabilitated from a vacant structure. These homes are rented to people with lower costs butthe

obligation is that the residents need to live that home for 15 years (Hexter, Greenwald, & Petrus,

2008, p. 14).

Land banks are the key stakeholders for rehabilitation of vacant units. Today, land banks

generally have two major purposes. First, they can acquire a vacant home and transfer for

redevelopment and remarketing with the CDCs or other NGOs. Second, land banks can also

provide clear title or tax waving for improvements of the property. Finally, land banks can

provide maintenance and planning services. Demolition and renovation of the housing units are

the maintenance services that land banks can accomplish. For future development, land banks

can design new policies for vacant land after demolition practices(Sage Computing, 2009, p. 4).

Cuyahoga County Land Bank’s major duties are demolition activities, vacant lot reuse

policies, and house renovation activities. In order to prove demolition services, Cuyahoga Land

Bank initially identifies the vacant unit and transfers the demolition action to the related

construction companies. For vacant lots reuse, land bank provides three different policies. First

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11 organizations. Second is combining parcels. This policy basically provides an option to parcel

owners, whose parcel is adjacent to the vacant lot, to buy the vacant lot. Third, Cuyahoga land

bank cooperates with local governments and private organizations to implement urban gardening

practices on agriculturally available vacant lots(Cuyahoga County Land Bank, 2011).

The housing policies provided by land bank includes modify, transfer, and sell policies at

three levels. The first level of the policy is to develop partnerships with low experienced firms

and homeowners for renovating the vacant unit. Second level of the policy that is followed by

land bank is direct selling of the vacant unit to professional rehabbers and homeowners that have

the rehabilitation skills. Final level of the policy is to rehabilitate the vacant property by the land

banks sources and workers and sell them to the individuals(Cuyahoga County Land Bank,

Housing, 2011).

Cleveland land bank has two different approaches for vacant properties. The land bank

differentiates the properties as buildable and non-buildable vacant properties. For non-buildable

properties the land bank provides yard extension program. By implementing this program land

bank transfers the property to the individuals. For buildable lots, individuals proposed their

construction projects that have not any controversy among the local housing codes and

regulations(City of Cleveland, 2004).

In Cleveland, each year, city demolishes its 1,000 vacant buildings. The vacant lands are

continually growing due to the demolition activities (Kent State University, 2008, p. 2).

Therefore, Kent State University along with Neighborhood Inc. and Cleveland City Planning

Commission had prepared city-wide strategies for reusing the land surpluses with green solutions

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12 According to this report, many strategies had been introduced with sustainability

perspectives. Main goal of this project is to introduce implementable green infrastructures and

other reuse techniques and point out the ecosystem services and economic advantages of these

strategies. Additionally, this report introduced possible stakeholders and financial sources from

governmental funds and non-profit organizations.

The report suggested three important policy stages for reusing vacant land. According to

Kent State Land Lab, the initial policy is to provide financial incentives and regulations for

developing neighborhoods in order to stabilize vacancy. Second strategy is implement green

spaces such as community gardens for low-income neighborhoods. The report insists that the

urban agriculture will provide new job opportunities and will create local food market. Also the

unused land can be used as clean energy fields such as solar farms or wind energy. This strategy

can also generate green technology market and bring about new job fields. Final strategy relevant

to water quality control by expanding green spaces and redesign vacant lots near river cost lines

as storm water holding green infrastructures(Kent State University, 2008, pp. 31,34).

3.3. Major Policy Challenges

Reuse practices are generally is a hard and complex way as a sustainability policy for a city.

The complexity could occur in approval of clear titling actions. Obtaining approvals cause

inflexibility and slows down the decision processes of the policy actions because permissions are

needed from local governments and agencies. Rather than legislation inflexibility there are also

several challenges could occur. These challenges are identification of the property owners,

compliances with the city development plans,marketing the properties, and challenges in vacant

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13 The problems during the policy implementation could occur in every frame of the action

plans for reusing vacant properties. The first challenge could occur at the very first step of the

policy that is creating inventory section. City authorities could not find the owners of the

property in order to initiate the policy implementation. The semi-solution for this challenge is to

sign-up programs. Such programs in Albany, NY are a good example and practice to collect data

and owner characterization. Another example to combat this problem is GIS operations. These

map-based applications are a good way to visualize and to store the data-sets. City of Baltimore

uses GIS operations to collect data and NEOCANDO has parcel based data for vacancy for

North East Ohio is another example for Cleveland data management program (Dewar, 2009, p.

7).

Another problem is the cities development plans and vacant property policies should overlap

in development plans. In Cleveland, the land bank’s main goal is to prove available vacant land

for reconstruction to increase the quality of current development pattern. In other words, city

increase the quality of current condition. In some cities, such as Detroit, one of the main goals of

the policies is profit making without giving any guarantee of full ownership (Dewar, 2009, p.

11).

Cleveland is an ex-industrial city and the housing market is not active due to the continual

population decline. Therefore, demolition is the default option for the city authorities. The city

focused more on the reuse of the vacant lot occurred from demolition actives. Such policies as

combining parcels and urban agriculture practices could also bring about new problems. In order

to implement an urban farm on a vacant lot the initial costs could be higher than expected. The

capital for a small farm could include equipment costs, employment costs, water usage costs, and

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14 Monopolies in food market could not allow local farm products and cause inefficiency in profit

making. Especially for Cleveland, the growth season is limited and some products need certain

climate conditions, therefore the food variety will be limited. Finally, public health and

environmental problems could occurwhile the owners of the pocket farm seek profits. Use of

fertilizers and water for increasing the performance can bring about contaminated soils problems

and contaminated urban run-offs(Food Security, 2003, pp. 14,18).

A good way to emphasize finance could be done by measuring the capacity of the

non-profit organizations in a city. For instance, the capacities of the CDCs in Cleveland are at higher

levels. Because City of Cleveland has transferred its %25CDBG to the CDCs in order to raise the

capacity of the non-profit organizations. As a result of that, Cleveland has a high potential to

reuse vacant properties (Dewar, 2009, p. 10).

4. Alternative Policies

Alternative policies are given as optional ideas that can be accompanied to the general

policies about vacancy in City of Cleveland. These policies could also be used to minimize the

size of the barriers for vacant property issues.The alternative policies offer city beatification and

present a new dimension for housing market.

4.1. Vacant Properties to Green Spacesfor City of Cleveland

Replacing vacant land as green infrastructure is known as right-sizing the land for future

generations. The term right-sizing means the usage of surplus land for new utilization, instead of

using new land parcels(Schilling & Logan, Greening the Rust Belt-A Green Infrastructure Model

for Right Sizing, 2008, p. 453). After demolition practices as a policy step in the revitalization

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15 The policy implementation has three main perspectives that are identification, data

gathering, and providing land bank services. The first is to identify the location of the vacant

property to implement the greening policy. The identification of buildings that will be

demolished and the buildings that will be rehabilitated, are the crucial points. The choices should

be based on the socio-economic conditions of the city. The opinions of the residents in concerned

neighborhoods are also important (Schilling & Logan, Greening the Rust Belt-A Green

Infrastructure Model for Right Sizing, 2008, p. 457).

The data analysis methods could be varied. The policy makers can find data from

previous policies and implementations. For instance, people could find the right place for

demolition or establish green infrastructure by analyzing the owner characteristics. The greening

policies are mostly implementing for city owned properties. Another method for collect and sort

data is of course GIS operations. GIS operations are highly effective not only for identification of

the vacant lots, but also it is efficient for data management. Moreover, GIS tools such as area

calculations and model based analysis can help decision makers to find the efficient green

infrastructure for implementation.GIS tools can also be used for cost-benefit analysis to show

possible results of the policy.

Establishing land banks is another element for green infrastructure right-sizing practices.

According to this policy model, the lank banks must have a coherent structure that covers the

demolition, management, and reuse practices with other private or governmental organizations.

Finally, states or city authorities should create land bank legislation to protect and maintain

land-banking programs. Examples of these enactments can be seen in such states as Ohio, Georgia,

and Michigan (Schilling & Logan, Greening the Rust Belt-A Green Infrastructure Model for

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16 The city of Buffalo, NY has a rigorous policy in order to handle vacant housing units. In

2007, 22,000 vacant housing units were identified in the city (Revitalizing Urban

Neighborhoods, Inc., 2007). The city consul implemented demolition policy for vacant buildings,

which cannot be rehabilitated or cannot be sold to private sector. After demolition, the main goal

ofthe city’s Urban Renewal Agency and Revitalizing Urban Neighborhoods Inc. (RUN Buffalo)

is to redesign green spaces for vacant lots. These green spaces could include community gardens

and pocket parks.

Cleveland could modify RUN Buffalo policy for the urbanized areas by establishing

pocket parks for beatification activities for combating urban decay. Before establishing this

policy Cleveland City Planning Commission and City of Cleveland Community Development

should identify the vacant units or lots cooperation with the NEO CANDO. The identification of

the parcel owner can be done by the online sign-up activities. Data analysis could be done by

NEO CANDO to identify the location of the possible vacant property that will be change into a

pocket park. The indicators for identification could be varied. An efficient survey based on

agricultural inefficiency, household incomes, the condition of housing market in the

neighborhoods, crime rates, and buildable, non-buildable conditions could be implemented for

identification of effective vacant properties.

Based on similar policies in other cities, CDCs prefer to use the CDBG to implement

green space activities. The city of Cleveland has already use 25% of the federal grant for

renovation activities and to use some portion for pocket parks could bring about effective

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17 The key stakeholder would be the Cleveland Land Bank for obtaining of the property and

clear titleactivities with the coordination of the Cleveland Department of Community

Development.Next step in the policy frame is the demolition of the vacant unit. Demolition

activity could be done by land bank or private firms. Third, land bank could transfer the lot to a

private firm or a NGO to establish the pocket park. Additionally, Cleveland Land Bank can also

transfer directly, the property to a private company to convert the vacant lot to a pocket park with

all other responsibly (Figure 4)(Sage Computing, 2009, p. 4).

Figure 4 Policy Frameworks for Establishment of Pocket Park

Source: Cuyahoga County Land Bank, Demolition and Vacant lot Reuse

4.2. Rehabilitation of Vacant Housing Units as Green Houses

Another alternative policy is modification of vacant housing units as green houses.During

the last decade homes are the individual portions of ineffective energy usage due to the high

quality living style.The idea of green homes originated from the current construction industry

products to make them more energy efficient and environmental friendly. Today, construction

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18 environmental qualities. At the same time by living in these green housing units people can save

money for reduction in their energy consumption patterns (Maczulak).

Green buildings and designers have three main goals in order to construct and

environmental friendly house. These goals are also known as 3Rs that refers to reuse, recycle,

and reduce. Regard to with these 3Rs the planners and owners could decide how the homes will

be look like. Some owners could choose being more energy efficient and disregard the materials

in use. Some owners could choose viceversa. This brings about a variety of different green

homes(Maczulak).Figure 5 shows basic features of a green home that has higher levels of all

3Rs.

Figure 5 Green Home Features

Source:Maczulak, Green Building Design, Science Online

Figure 5 shows somewhata hard-to-construct green house because according to today’s

green technology market. The instruments such as Earth-moderated temperature exchange

system have an approximate full system cost of $14,000 in 2008 dollars and replacement cost is

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19 not have a geothermal energy source or could be very deep to install these instruments.On the

other hand some features of Figure 5 are affordable such as solar panels and isolation techniques.

Due to the flexible design and possible higher costs, there are certification programs that

help designers and local governments to find their own pattern of green building. In order to

create affordable green houses, Green Enterprise Communities offers aid to state and local

governments and also offer funds to developers and builders. Green Enterprise Communities

have published criterions in their web site. To obtain this certification, firstly the project should

consider low income residents or tenants (Enterprise Green Communities, 2011).

Another certification is provided by U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) called

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). LEED certification provides solutions

for construction industries, local government for the challenges of green building constructions.

LEED use rating system and evaluate the project’s sustainability in water efficiency, energy,

recycling, and regional priorities (USGBC, 2011).

Green housing can be used for combating vacancy. The vacant home can be modified as

a green home and this strategy will bring about new housing market and also job opportunities.

In South Euclid, Ohio this transformation policy has been using for inner ring suburban

areas.With the total funds from Cuyahoga County and federal government grants are

approximately $1 million dollar, city started the Green Neighborhoods Initiative program (Love,

2010). The framework of policy of this program is quite simple. With the budgets, city will buy

the vacant homes and revitalize them with sustainable aspects of green housing techniques. Next,

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20 Today, City of South Euclid has completed the transformation of four houses and three of

them are already sold.Table 2 shows the housing prices and general condition of houses. In the

Appendix (section 6) a map of South Euclid is provided to show the number of lowest income

homes and the locations of the green homes that have built. According this map the houses

wasconstructed in two regions where the highest number of low income homes is presented.

Table 2 Green Houses in South Euclid

Source: Ideal Homes, South Euclid

The Cuyahoga County Land Bank programs about housing have three different policies

(See Section 3.2.). The green housing construction program could be accompanied these

different policy levels. In order to implement an efficient green housing policy modification

method should be chosen before destruction practices. The initial policy frame is to identify the

vacant homes and their owners. Another important step is the identification of possible

modification level. The indicators for identification of right vacant home could include the

condition of the house, the condition of neighborhood housing market, household income

levelsand the population. Then the Cuyahoga Land Bank should seek partnerships with private

construction companies to provide a certificated green home modification. Cuyahoga Land bank

could also integrate the concept of green energy efficient houses for the current housing

renovation policies. Figure 6 shows the possible policy framework for implementing green

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21 eliminated for new housing policy, the implementation of a green housing modification policy

could be used for Cuyahoga County land Bank two out of three current policies.

Figure 6 Integration of Green Housing Policy to the Current Policies

Source: Cuyahoga County Land Bank, Housing

4.3. Benefits of Alternative Policies for Sustainable Development

Most of the benefits have been explained in Section 3.2. Right-sizing based on green

infrastructure has economic and environmental benefits. The policies such as implementing

pocket parks have economic advantages for improving the city quality and directly impact the

quality of life. Green space is a good way to combat urban sprawling. With the presence of green

spaces, the cities become more attractive to live. Recreation areas such as parks enable people to

change their transportation patterns. After demolition of a vacant building, the surplus land could

be targeted as illegal debris areas. Therefore, the reuse of these lands offer high quality

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22 Green building construction and selling could have a success in housing market. It can

accelerate the housing market and also it can create a new market of green products. Job training

programs for qualified staff can offer people new job opportunities. For Cleveland, demolition

practices are at higher levels and the materials from these practices can be used as recycled

materials for green construction. Green building techniques can be used in central south east

portion of the city (Appendix, Map1). By implementing new houses, city could become

attractive to residents and reuse policy can be switched to urban sprawl policy.

4.4. Challenges in Alternative Policies

Policy makers can encounter some challenges before and after the implementation of

right-sizing policies. The first challenge is of course funding. Without enough funds, the right-right-sizing

practices could not be initiated. Second challenge is lack of authority. Without enough legislative

powers decision makers could not manage the implementations. Some states, such as Ohio have

overcome this problem by legislating land-banking programs. After solving budgeting and

regulative problems, many states still need a leader organization or group to manage the policies

and create communication between relevant organizations(Schilling & Logan, Greening the Rust

Belt-A Green Infrastructure Model for Right Sizing, 2008, p. 467).

Due to the financing issues, in order to implement mini-park policy, voluntarism is needed.

The residents have willingness to have small sized parks instead of vacant lot; therefore

Cleveland city authorities can use this interest for implementation activities. Cleveland land bank

could transfer the vacant lots to NGOs or neighborhood development organizations for

transferring the financial burden(Geisler, Greenstein, Hu, Mithorn, & Munsell, 2009, p. 67).

Rather than financing issues, liability challenges could occur among stakeholders. In order to

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23 the communication among the agencies and organizations. The city authorities could

designcodes that clear the roles about vacant lot greening activities. The legislation can speed the

policy activities(Carrera, 2002, p. 16).

The major challenge that Cleveland could possibly encounter is the building codes. However,

the recent project in Cleveland, the EcoVillage Project demonstrates that application of green

housing techniques is possible and could be part of the local building code of the city. A positive

outcome has been generated with the preparation an appendix for the Cleveland Residential

Code. This appendix consist of 49 chapters that identifies each part of a green building; its

heating and cooling systems, walls and walls coverings, roof coverings, electrical code, etc. The

main goal of this appendix is the elimination of possible barriers by reforming the current codes

as performance based codes that can clear the way of green building construction. The

application of this appendix by Cleveland would bring about a green construction market to the

city and the modification of vacant buildings as green houses such as in South Euclid will be

accelerated(Ecocity Cleveland, 2003).

There are also other possible challenges for policy makers for green building strategy. This

strategy has long term goals with slow pace outcomes. The main problem could occur with the

cities current development plans. Therefore, identification of the location of the innovative

housing units is important. Another problem could occur between city authorities and non-profit

organizations. The distribution of duties and a leader organization must be available. To solve

these problems cities should use these strategies for neighborhood levels instead of a city-wide

theory. Final challenge could be seen at financial level when appropriate funds could not be

found. To sum up, the best way to use this strategy is the unification of other strategies. For

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5. Conclusion

Each waste could be a resource for new implementation. Vacancy is both a problem and a

new chance to redevelop city or neighborhood for sustainable perspectives. By revitalizing

vacant properties cities can achieve more economic, socially fair, and high quality environments.

The main reason of vacancy is population lost and foreclosures due to the mortgage

crisis.Cities have implemented various policies and strategies to overcome the vacancy burden.

These policies include creating inventory and identification practices, finding funds for reuse of

vacant buildings, and regulatory practices for controlling the housing market and vacancy.

Cleveland and Cuyahoga County have already accomplished the establishment of land

banks for vacant properties. The main goal of this paper is to introduce two important

sustainability policies for vacant buildings before and after demolition for these land banks and

other ongoing projects.City of Cleveland can used the green space policy for vacant land that is

originated from demolition of vacant buildings. According to research study from Kent States,

there is enough available vacant land for green spaces with ecological benefits such as water

quality control. Second policy is an inspiration from City of South Euclid’s green building

program. Cleveland could use the same strategy as a back-up for ongoing or future policies and

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6. Appendix

Map 1

Courtesy of U.S. Census Bureau, NEO CANDO Data Sources

URL: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/bdy_files.html

URL:http://neocando.case.edu/cando/fullDataReport/interface.jsp

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7. References

Alexander, F. (n.d.). Vacant Properties The True Costs to Communities. Retrieved October 10, 2011, from The United States Conference of Mayors:

http://www.usmayors.org/brownfields/library/vacantproperties0805.pdf

Carrera, J. M. (2002, September 12). Neighborhood Open Space Management: A Report on the Vacant Lot Restoration Program in Baltimore. Retrieved December 13, 2011, from Parks and People Foundation:

http://www.parksandpeople.org/files/resources/2577_Vacant%20Lot%20Restoration%20Progr am%20Report.pdf

City of Cleveland ,Land Bank Application. (2004, April 13). Retrieved December 11, 2011, from:

http://cd.city.cleveland.oh.us/forms/cdLandbankApplicantInfo.pdf

City of South Euclid,Green Neighborhoods Initiative. (n.d.). Retrieved October 05, 2011, from:

http://www.cityofsoutheuclid.com/building-housing/green-neighborhoods-initiative.html#top

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