depave

From de- +‎ pave.

depave (third-person singular simple present depaves, present participle depaving, simple past and past participle depaved)

1. (transitive) To undo the act of paving; to remove pavement (especially if it is in the form of asphalt, concrete or the like) so as to restore the land to a more natural state.
   • 1995 September, Susan Cohn, Green at Work, Island Press, page 223:

     Environmental programs: Depaving; auto free city centers; closure of roads...

   • 1998 October, Jane Holtz Kay, Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back, University of California Press, page 356:

     Hand out a bonus for building on wasted brownfields and depaving asphalt ones; penalize building on greenfields.

   • 2000 March–April, Laird Harrison, "Depaving Paradise", Audubon Magazine :

     Then the town depaved part of a city street and closed another to cars.

   • 2002, Jan Lundberg, "Gasoline Prices and Food: in Context", Culture Change, at www.culturechange.org :

     They depaved their driveway to grow food, and they are proud to own no car, TV or refrigerator

   • 2003, Richard Register, "Depaving the World", Culture Change, at www.culturechange.org :

     The city has a requirement to provide off-street parking.... UA Homes had real difficulty persuading City Hall to allow us to depave about six places for a garden.

   • 2006 May 28, Paul Cooley of Santa Fe, "Miscellaneous Stuff", Carfree Family, at carfreefamily.blogspot.com :

     This afternoon, we started depaving the driveway to make room for another garden bed.

   • 2018, Michelle Mulder, Going Wild: Helping Nature Thrive in Cities, Orca Book Publishers, →ISBN, page 26:

     Rewilding can be as complex as depaving a creek or as simple as planting a few seeds. All you need is a bit of time, curiosity, keen eyes and creativity.

• unpave (especially if the paving is in the form of paving stones)