The Overbrook Environmental Education Center’s EcoZone project is based a single guiding principle: land use decisions should benefit surrounding communities. Unfortunately, for over a century, industrial facilities and nuisance businesses have operated next to homes, schools, and churches along the Lancaster Avenue corridor.
Eco Zone
EcoZones are populated areas prioritized for land revitalization and environmental interventions to improve residents’ quality of life. The EcoZone designation will restrict new development of an industrial or otherwise harmful nature, such as data centers, prisons, and fossil-fuel facilities.
The plan includes planting trees, building bus shelters for shade, installing green stormwater infrastructure to protect properties from flooding, and turning vacant lots into pocket parks and gardens instead of hypermodern apartments. Residents will benefit from reduced heat inside and outside their homes, improved green spaces on their blocks, and safer, more walkable sidewalks.