The city of Akron, Ohio, recently unveiled the Akron Innerbelt Master Plan outlining a series of opportunities to reconnect communities and drive future private investment. The plan features more than 30 projects built around five core strategies, enhancing connectivity throughout the corridor.
The city’s first order of business will be to push short-term implementation strategies in 2026 to enable broader construction along the five-mile corridor. A selection of these actions will include updating the zoning code for the zones around the Innerbelt, beautifying the Innerbelt’s decommissioned areas, resurfacing a boulevard and facilitating infill housing development on vacant land. While receiving its first round of approvals, the plan will need a recommendation from the April Planning Commission before it can be adopted by the City Council.
Long-term visions revolve around emphasizing marked improvements for the corridor’s critical infrastructure and community investments. The guiding principles for these projects depend on implementing five strategies:
- Invest in Neighborhoods
- Strengthen East-West Corridors.
- Connect Open Spaces.
- Activate Innerbelt-Adjacent Assets.
- Unlock Land Under the Innerbelt.
Neighborhood investment will start with developing infill housing, rehabilitating existing housing, supporting commercial and community mobility corridors and expanding access to services. These efforts will usher in a new supply of mixed-income homeownership and rental housing, alongside a series of pedestrian safety improvements including improved curbs and crosswalks.
Strengthening the east-west corridors comes down to ensuring West Akron neighborhoods have been access to critical amenities including jobs, services and resources across the Innerbelt. The city will prioritize improving pedestrian and bicyclist crossings, sidewalks and bike lanes, converting one-way streets to two-way and improving transit accessibility and safety. The plan also calls for revitalizing commercial corridors to support small businesses, attract new investments and enhance the streetscape.
Additional investments in connectivity will involve creating clear and accessible pathways between neighborhoods and parks and trails. After investing in improved wayfinding and access points, the city will redevelop the corridor to enhance public spaces and emphasize cultural placemaking in those areas.
To activate the Innerbelt, Akron will use publicly-owned land around the area to support goals contributing to affordable housing, employment and community and cultural uses. The city will also encourage relevant private development. Any value gained from these developments will be funneled into reparative investments in historically underserved neighborhoods.
Finally, Akron’s efforts to unlock land under the site will primarily focus on removing or improving infrastructure and development. Plans include removing unnecessary highway infrastructure, redeveloping the right-of-way into a reimagined interconnected road network and enhance pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular safety measures.
Although the Akron Innerbelt Master Plan has not assigned firm cost estimates to featured projects, it does provide projected cost values for its portfolio. Among these high-tier cost projects, the city will redevelop a parking lot to align with the plan. The redevelopment will convert the structure into a mixed-use development with ground floor retail space, mixed-income housing and connections to pedestrian and street networks.
The city will redevelop a second parking lot along Wills Avenue into mixed-come housing as well. Plans for the site include community activation for the ground floor, pedestrian connections to nearby cultural centers and better accessibility to downtown greenspace.
One of the main long-term goals included in the master plan will be the redevelop land under the Innerbelt. Projects featured as part of this initiative will include building new streets and structures. The city will preserve the green landscape running through infill development to create pocket parks and outdoor spaces. Akron will also repurpose a vehicular path to provide back-of-house access.
Akron plans to redevelop a city-owned parcel of land located at the intersection of Rhodes Avenue and Bartges Street into a community center. The city will also encourage the private redevelopment of the underutilized parking lot at Dark Avenue into a medical facility expansion.
Photo by Armand M from Pexels
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