Vacant Land Reclamation

GTECH transforms vacant or blighted properties into viable community economic development opportunities by reclaiming sites and employing green redevelopment strategies to revive and recover the land.  GTECH reduces urban decay by employing low-cost, high impact environmental strategies on single sites and large development corridors, bridging the gap between blight and redevelopment on vacant land.

Each GTECH reclamation project leverages additional resources, helping to improve environmental conditions in communities while integrating green job training as a means of transitioning problematic spaces into productive places in benefit of community.
 
GTECH Land Reclamation Projects include:

Sunflower Gardens

To read descriptions of our projects - click on the points on the map.  Zoom out to see all of our sites in Allegheny County.


View GTECH Strategies Sites in a larger map
= Current Site      = Transitioned Site

For more information on transitioned sites, please see the Case Studies posted on the Resource section of the website.

Project SPARC

SPARC, Seeding Prosperity And Revitalizing Corridors, is designed to:  

  • Green the vacant land of an entire corridor using a menu of green strategies lead by the community in cooperation with public agencies, and using the expertise of the partner organizations.
  • Develop a place-based strategy using blighted vacant land as an economic development and job training strategy.
  • Effect regional climate change through reduction of air pollution and urban heat island effect.
  • Recruit youth from geographically targeted areas for participation in educational & training programs.
  • Facilitate a community application process for participation to increase community capacity and increase resources like technical assistance.
    Click here for more info.
    In January of 2009, GTECH convened a brainstorming session with several of Pittsburgh’s most active environmental groups working in several communities throughout the region: the Student Conservation Association (SCA), the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC), Penn State Cooperative Extension (PSU), and Grow Pittsburgh in an effort to collaboratively answer the challenges of Pittsburgh’s vacant lot problem.
     
    This group saw the need to partner with community-based organizations to assist with coordinated planning efforts to implement widespread greening projects targeting vacant land within large-scale corridors. This effort would allow for a menu of green strategies to be developed and implemented, a sharing of project resources, and a host of technical expertise provided to the community. This collaborative effort would allow for wider impact, rather than scattered one-site based projects usually implemented in communities.
     
    In the Fall of 2009, the SPARC collaborative engaged a Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College Systems team to provide research and analysis for policy implications, project implementation, impact analysis, and key metric evaluation. Currently, SPARC is in the planning phases for implementation of a pilot project for 2011.

Project Sprout

Project Sprout is applying GTECH's core model: land remediation, education, green job training, and community engagement in New Orleans in conjunction in partnership with fellow Echoing Green recipient, Green Coast Enterprises.  In 2009, 5 lots were planted with Limitless Vistas Incorporated to implement sunflower gardens on five sites in the Hoffman Triangle neighborhood.