AKRON, Ohio — The City of Akron recently rolled out its second installment of the Mow to Own program, which allows residents with eligible city-owned vacant lots adjacent to their property to maintain the lot and pay closing costs (around $100) to own the property. Those who have participated in the program envision its potential to grow and provide numerous benefits.
When Sam Borick and Megan Delong chose their home in Akron last August, they did so with the city's Mow to Own program in mind. It was the first round of lots open to the program, and the opportunity to have more space on a property for little effort was a no-brainer for them.
"Nobody wants to live next to a lot that isn't being maintained, and so if nobody's going to do it, then we knew we wanted to step up anyway," Borick said. "We were going to take care of the lot no matter who owned it, so it kind of made sense."
Borick and Delong found a home in Akron's Middlebury neighborhood that had a lot eligible for the program. After getting the house, filling out the paperwork, and, of course, keeping the lot mowed—the plot of land was theirs to own.
The decision was an easy one for the two Akronites and a decision many others in Akron also quickly jumped on. The city has given away more than 100 vacant lots since rolling out the program last year. In this year's installment, 44 more lots were made eligible.
The program is being talked about by residents all across the city, but especially in Middlebury, Delong said.
"I get to talk to all these neighbors every single day, and they talk to me a lot about how 'I would love to own this property next to me,' or 'I see this vacant lot that's overgrown, or I see this lot that used to have a house on it that now it got demolished and there's nothing happening to it now. It's owned by the city. I would really love to have it to do a community garden or fence it in, and my dog would have a bigger yard' or whatever it would want to be. I keep hearing a lot of neighbors just being like, 'I would love to have some extra space or just something more,' and this gives people the opportunity to do that," Delong said.
For the lot owned by Borick and Delong, plans to nourish the green space are in the works.
"The vision is a food forest. We want to do lots of like native edible trees and like lots of that kind of thing. So lots of perennial plants and kind of cool stuff like that," Borick said while visualizing how they will transform their vacant lot. "Maybe three or four fruit trees kind of in a line right here. We're thinking berries may be over there. We're still kind of getting to know the space."
No matter what kind of plants they go with, Delong knows it will be a place to increase the greenery in Akron.
As a Middlebury inhabitant, Delong recognizes the lack of green space in the neighborhood. She sees Akron's Mow to Own program as a way to address that across the city.
"I'm always thinking about green space in a broader capacity, not just Akron, not just Ohio. I'm also thinking about the air quality, things that we're going through right now. I'm thinking about the houseless population that we have," Delong said. "We all really can look at Akron as this program as being a start to bigger, more things that we can look at and start in other places."
While the city of Akron has seen a strong and positive response to the Mow to Own program since originally launching it, seeing the success of the program has folks like Delong and Borick hopeful the idea could spread to other cities across Northeast Ohio.
In the meantime, the city has no shortage of interest in its Mow to Own program, with another overwhelming response to the second installment.
Click here to see a map of available lots.
Click here to see a list of available lots.
Click here for more program details.
Click here to visit the Mow to Own program website for more information.
RELATED: City of Akron giving property owners the chance to own adjacent lots by mowing them
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