New Philadelphia budget may halt funding for cleaning up vacant lots

A popular program to "clean and green" vacant lots could be eliminated under budget cuts expected to be announced Wednesday.

The Community Land Care program, run by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS), has been funded by the city since 2000 as a companion to Mayor John F. Street's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, which demolished derelict properties. The newly vacant lots were often targets of illegal dumping.

The program, operating with $2.4 million from the city in 2009-10, has cleared 5,000 lots totaling 280 acres, said Alan Jaffe, PHS spokesman.

"There are a lot of numbers out there, and I don't think any of the numbers I've seen are accurate," said city Finance Director Rob Dubow, who would not comment further Tuesday.

Since the end of the fiscal year on June 30, PHS has received no funding for Community Land Care, and officials are not optimistic that the program will be funded when Nutter administration officials submit their five-year plan to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA) on Wednesday.

Although fiscal 2011 began July 1, the administration has not announced cuts that the mayor said were necessary because of unexpectedly low revenues and an inadequate surplus to work with in the $3.9 billion budget. On Wednesday, however, the administration must present PICA - which oversees city finances - a solid five-year plan with a balanced 2010-11 budget.

"We're very concerned that the community is going to be impacted by this," Jaffe said.

The $2.4 million goes to 15 community organizations, which in turn contract with companies whose missions include hiring recovering addicts, former prisoners, and the homeless. Jaffe said 200 jobs would be lost.

The program's philosophy is simple. By first removing trash, then planting grass and trees, then setting up an attractive - but not restrictive - wood-rail fence, a green oasis is created, and people don't want to dump there any longer.

PHS has established a system of reaching out to landlords for permission to do the work on private lots, though many of the sites are city-owned land acquired as part of NTI.