By John Gallagher

Detroit Free Press Business Writer

If vacant lots were painted red, an aerial view of Detroit would look like a bad case of the measles. There is so much empty land today within Detroit's 139 square miles -- land slowly returning to nature with no buildings -- the city of Paris could fit inside. If all that land were gathered into football fields, Detroit could host 25,000 simultaneous games.

Many people, from Mayor Dave Bing's Detroit Works planners to everyday residents, have been thinking of new uses. But as Detroit Works moves toward a final report later this year, a stark reality is clear. There's so little market demand that much of the vacant land will remain empty for years, or even decades, as unproductive and untaxed, contributing nothing to the city's recovery.

"My blunt answer is we don't, at this stage, have an answer for the scale of vacant land that we have here in the city of Detroit," said Robin Boyle, chairman of the department of urban planning at Wayne State University.

This reality could change if civic leaders and Detroiters at all levels devise a new strategy. There are lots of ideas: mega-fields of solar panels or restoring Detroit's many buried streams for storm water retention fields and recreation.

Joan Moss, director of the nonprofit Church of the Messiah Housing Corp. on the city's east side, sees the empty spaces not as a problem but as an opportunity. "This is an exciting time," she said. "We almost have a blank slate."

Continued at: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...=2012204010467