What Is the Community’s Role in the Innerbelt Master Plan?
The Innerbelt Master Plan will be the community’s plan. Unlike the top-down planning approach that led to the Innerbelt’s construction, this process will rely on collaborative decision-making with the community. No decisions about the future of the Innerbelt have been made yet, and the Master Plan will be shaped through dialogue, engagement, and shared ideas over the next nine months.
We are continuing to build on the values and approach used in Phase 1 of the community engagement process for the Master Plan. In this next phase, we will focus on looking ahead while keeping the past in mind. Our goal is to center the voices of those most impacted by past actions in discussions about the future. We will also create ways for everyone in the Akron community to learn about this history and use that understanding as a starting point for shaping what comes next.
As we embark on the engagement, we understand that it’s important to center those who were most harmed by the actions of the past in conversations about what’s next, create opportunities for the broader Akron community to have an awareness of the history and use that as a baseline for discussing the future, and enable everyone to physically experience the Innerbelt to provide context for future aspirations. To support all of that we will have 4 activity tracks: Former Resident Engagement, Broader Akron Engagement, On site Engagement, Community Meeting Engagement.
Former Resident Engagement
Activities:
- Oral history interviews
- Site tours
- Focus groups
Goal:
- To create a more complete and permanent archive of the past
- To use a better understanding of past to get insights on what could support healing and thriving on this site in the future
Broader Akron Community Engagement
Activities:
- Pop up engagement stations
- Stakeholder conversations
Goal:
- To engage and interest a broader cross section of Akron in the future of the Innerbelt
- To share info about the Innerbelt’s history and solicit community needs and desires for the future
On Site Engagement
Activities:
- Activation events on the Innerbelt
Goal:
- To give people an opportunity to physically experience the Innerbelt
- To solicit ideas for the short- and long-term future of the site
Community Meeting Engagement
Activities:
- 2-3 community meetings
Goal:
- To share the data collected from the engagement activities
- To have a more concrete conversation about community preferences for the site
The draft list of community preferences will be previewed with the community and refined in response before the City uses it to set up the next phases of the redevelopment process.
There will also be a follow up plan on how to continue the more complicated work of reckoning and healing since that too is a long-term effort.