By Jonathan Wilson
WAMU 88.5
Paved, vacant lots in urban centers can be more than just an eyesore — they can do environmental damage by trapping heat and adding to problem of polluted runoff washing into creeks and rivers, and ultimately, in this area, the Chesapeake Bay.
Maryland’s largest city, Baltimore, also has one of the highest percentages of vacant properties in the country. But now a partnership between the city, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Chesapeake Bay Trust is bearing its first fruit in the form of a demonstration project in the Bridgeview/Greenlawn community in West Baltimore.
That’s where, over the coming days and weeks, a 10,000 square-foot lot of asphalt, concrete and overgrown weeds will be replaced with topsoil, trees, wildflowers, and rain gardens. Gladys Warren has lived on the block for most of her life, and says the plot had become a dumping ground.
The lot is the first winner of the city’s Growing Green Design Competition, which brought together community groups, design firms and non-profit and private partners to come up with innovative ideas for reusing vacant land while also reducing stormwater running off of paved surfaces, encouraging urban agriculture and adding trees to neighborhoods.
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