City of Akron releases Innerbelt Master Plan

AKRON, Ohio — A small stretch of road known as the “Innerbelt” was meant to connect to major highways in Akron in the 1960s, but the construction project has since been abandoned.

Now, the city is hoping to transform what’s become a point of division to a symbol of unity.

The city released a “Phase One Report” last year, detailing more than two years of engagement data, case studies and recommendations for carrying out its Reconnecting Our Community initiative. The development program was formally launched in 2022 and aims to rebuild the Innerbelt space through community-based collaboration. Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said they’re now launching a master plan, implementing input from members of the community. 

“I’m a little nervous because its like $200 million of work back there, and that’s a lot of years of work, but I am confident we can do it,” Malik said.

The city said the plan covers the entire Innerbelt area, including Wooster Avenue and Howard Street – two historic Black commercial, cultural corridors – along with nearby neighborhoods.

Roberta Rogers was born and raised on Poplar Street in the Akron Innerbelt area.

She said her family and many others were displaced from the area during the Innerbelt’s initial construction.

“It was a beautiful home and beautiful community,” Rogers said. “We had neighbors and friends that we cared a lot about, and there were stores and post offices and businesses in the area too, that are all gone.”

Now, Rogers said, she’s hoping to see the city revive the communities’ legacy.

“Fortunately, however, this group is trying to rebuild the area and give us back community once again, which will be wonderful,” she said.

The mayor invited other local leaders and the Innerbelt design team to discuss their strategies for supporting Akron residents. 

Urban planner Siqi Zhu said the Sasaki design team has divided the restoration plans into the five stages, which include, making neighborhood-based investments, strengthing east-west corridors, and connecting open spaces and activating Innerbelt-adjacent assets.

The design team is now handing off these plans to the city, Zhu said, also setting a timeline for reaching short-term and long-term goals.

“This is the moment when we take these ideas, and again … start to turn them into reality in the next one year, five years, 15 years and 30 years,” he said.

(Spectrum News 1/Tanya Velazquez)

“The last idea is to focus on the actual highway infrastructure and how we can incrementally undue, untangle that infrastructure, which requires a lot of thoughtful studies and steps, for the reason that this is still an active highway,” he said.

Millions of dollars in federal funds remain frozen for Innerbelt project after being halted during President Donald Trump’s DEI crackdown.

Zhu said they’re working with the city to overcome this hurdle.

“And that’s one of the big reasons why we broke up the master plan into these smaller, incremental steps,” he said. “That starts with, one to five years and then building on that. The one to five year projects are intentionally developed in such a way that they are within the sort of resource envelope of what the city has.”

Still, repairing the Innerbelt means recognizing the lasting impact of its past, Zhu said, and looking beyond the geographical scar left behind.

“It’s not just about putting back physically with the way it was, but rather looking at economy, housing, open space, culture, history, try to repair all of these different aspects, and not just the physical sort of highway and roads,” he said.