The Ohio State University at Lima
IN-26: Innovation C

Internal Partners: Knowlton School of Architecture; College of Engineering; Office of Outreach and Engagement; Ohio State Lima (Office of the Dean; Engineering program; Theatre Department). External Partners: City of Lima Mayor’s Office, City of Lima Community Development Office A team of professors from the departments of Landscape Architecture and City and Regional Planning in Ohio State’s Knowlton School of Architecture recently completed research on vacant land in New Orleans, Louisiana, and under an Engagement Impact Grant from OSU’s Office of Outreach and Engagement, were able to extend that research to Lima, Ohio. The goal is to turn vacant land to productive uses that address the social, environmental, and economic needs of the Lima community through an extensive community engagement project. In a project known as “Mapping Lima”, the Knowlton School’s Ohio Land Exchange project joined forces with the City of Lima and Ohio State Lima. The first priority was to get a sense of Lima's vacant land. To do this they created a geo-spatial data set using the city's existing records. This allowed the project leaders to see not just the number of vacant parcels, but concentrations, and spatial relationship between them. Knowlton faculty then organized a workshop to introduce Ohio State Lima undergraduate students and Knowlton School graduate students to basic mapping software for mobile devices and to training in group mapping exercises. The students and faculty went into Lima to document vacant properties and gather specific information on parcels throughout the city. The collected information on the parcels including current structures, evidence of dumping, and significant trees, as well as many others. With a firm sense of the city, they began to interview stakeholders throughout Lima such as Habitat for Humanity; the Lima Allen County Community Action Organization, which runs Headstart; New Lima Homes, which develops affordable residential properties; and the Allen Soil and Water Conservation District, which works to reduce flood risk and improve water quality. Using the unique responses to those interviews they created a series of spatially explicit interest maps for each stakeholder and then look for clusters of overlapping interests. The collected data and input from the community stakeholders and organizations was used by architecture students from the Knowlton School to develop designs for re-using the vacant lots. In June of 2016, the team held a Stakeholder Negotiation simulation for stakeholders in an area of Lima. The simulation was intended to help stakeholders groups with varying resources and capacities to experience the issues of dealing with vacant land but also how they might begin to collaborate in order to pool resources and organize interest around particular parcels. Concepts for the reuse of the parcels address the community's social, economic, and environmental needs. Examples of ideas for the spaces include a community center, a community garden, a mobile community space, a playground, a fitness park, a wellness garden, and a mobile clinic. Dr. Dan Matthews, an associate professor of Theatre at Ohio State Lima, adapted a theatre design course in which students created finished set pieces based on those designs. The finished pieces are meant to be mobile, temporary installations that can be set up on different parcels during a summer 2017 event to help envision a revitalized community. Additionally, the City of Lima received a $4.5 million grant from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency’s Neighborhood Initiative Program using data collected by the Ohio Land Exchange to implement some creative, sustainable solutions suggested by the Mapping Lima/Land Exchange project.

https://u.osu.edu/cityextension/2017/05/09/ohio-land-exchange-workshop/ http://thelantern.com/2016/02/knowlton-team-works-to-put-vacant-land-to-use/ http://hobnobcolumbus.com/news-crime/ohio-land-exchange-teaching-communities-how-to-reuse-abandoned-land/ http://www.parcelstoplaces.com/uploads/1/0/8/2/10823603/lex_presentation_sm.pdf https://steamfactory.osu.edu/research/collaborations-complete-and-ongoing/oh-lex-ohio-land-exchange