Lots to Love

Lots to Love Pittsburgh is an online resource guide for those who have an interest in transforming vacant lots in their neighborhoods into community green spaces. The website provides resources that help for organizations and residents alike to build a successful project on a vacant lot. The interactive map on the website shows all vacant lots across the entire Allegheny County. A user can click on a lot and instantly learn the lot’s unique identification number as well as ownership and tax delinquency status. The map is searchable by neighborhood, municipality or address, and the data used to populate the map comes from Allegheny County Assessment, City of Pittsburgh Real Estate Department and Department of City Planning.

Community groups and residents will also be able to post their neighborhood-based greening projects happening on vacant lots throughout the Pittsburgh region to the map.

Vacant lots cause many challenges for communities like eating up taxes for maintenance, lowering property values and decreasing community pride. In particular, vacant land has become a legacy of Pittsburgh’s economic shift that places a burden on the City. Within the City, vacant land is not only an economic challenge but also a geographical and organizational one. These vacant properties are highly dispersed, vary in size, and vary widely in ownership and tax status, which makes it a challenge for both the City and residents to find viable interim uses, preserve future opportunities, and craft long-term solutions. This site aims to simplify and streamline these processes for community groups and motivated individuals.

As a result, Grounded Strategies, along with the City of Pittsburgh Department of City Planning and the Pittsburgh Greenspace Alliance, have developed this resource. Lots to Love is a centralized resource for anyone seeking information about the process of building community-driven greening projects, with a special focus on vacant parcels throughout the county.

“I think everyone deserves access to information. Knowledge is power and there are not enough people in our neighborhood who understand and realize that information and the application of information is powerful.”

Cynthia Levy-MendozaNorthside Ambassador

Explore the site and register your project now at lotstolove.org

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