Dive deeper into the Innerbelt planning process with these resources from open houses, focus groups, pop-ups events, and more.
Citizen's Guide to the Akron Innerbelt Master Plan
Release Date: October 17, 2025
Learn more about the Innerbelt Master Plan with our new Citizen's Guide, which highlights key details of the plan and planning process and suggests ways to stay involved in the work. The Guide is a preview of the full Master Plan, with details on specific projects and how they work together to reconnect Akron. Read more below!
Newsletter #4
Release Date: October 8, 2025
The fourth edition of our monthly newsletter detailing the current state of the Innerbelt Master Plan Process. In this edition, we are covering: what to expect during our final open house (the Launch Party!) and our discussion with the University of Akron's [Un]Class on the history of the Innerbelt!
Disconnected Communities: University of Akron's [Un]Class on the Innerbelt
Release Date: October 6, 2025
Our community coordinators, Carla Davis and Ebony Hill, recently hosted a discussion with participants of the University of Akron's UnClass focusing on the Innerbelt, hearing from students and . [Un]classes break the mold of a traditional class by being unscripted, transdisciplinary, community-engaged courses that lead to real-world impact. They provide a uniquely Akron way to investigate topics of local relevance, generate meaningful solutions, and learn alongside community experts.
In the Spring of 2025, Dr. Hillary Nunn and Dr. Shanon Donnelly led this course with a special focus on the Innerbelt, where students picked specific research topics related to urban renewal, housing practices, displaced businesses, and more, with the goal of outlining the impacts of urban renewal in Akron, which are still being felt today.
Listen to the discussion of two students, Cyrus Schultz and Israel Blodgett, and the broader planning team below, where you can learn about the student projects and how they relate to the ongoing Innerbelt Master Plan! Their full research, as well as the work of other students in the class, is also available blow.
WATCH THE DISCUSSION READ THE UNCLASS RESEARCH
Design Strategies & Policy Tools for Repair
Release Date: July 18, 2025
During our recent virtual community conversation, we did a deep dive into the "Investing in Neighborhoods" design strategy and reviewed economic and policy tools that can help support repair within the master plan. View the slides below!
Newsletter #3
Release Date: July 10, 2025
The third edition of our monthly newsletter detailing the current state of the Innerbelt Master Plan Process. In this edition, we are covering: what we’ve heard from the community during Open House #3, the Grassroots Engagement Session at Srina Teahouse, and new ways to get involved in the planning process!
Initial Strategies + Tools
Release Date: July 8, 2025
As part of Open House #3, we unveiled five key strategies to ground the Innerbelt Master Plan, rooted in the community insights and feedback we heard in Open Houses #1 and #2 and the many other engagement events we've hosted over the past several months. These strategies are:
- Investing in Neighborhoods
- Connecting & Enhancing Open Space
- Activating Innerbelt-adjacent Assets
- Strengthen East-West Connections
- Unlock Land Under the Innerbelt
Overview of Strategies & Timeline
You can read more about each of these strategies and their associated projects at the links below! In addition to the five spatial strategies, we are also highlighting a set of potential economic and policy tools that can work in parallel.
Dive into the 5 Strategies EXplore Economic & Policy Tools
Innerbelt Newsletter #2
Release Date: May 19, 2025
The second edition of our monthly newsletter detailing the current state of the Innerbelt Master Plan Process. This edition covers Open House #3, other ways to get involved in the planning process, and what we’ve heard from the community during the first series of Community Meals & Conversations.
Innerbelt Principles, Goals, and Actions
Release Date: May 7, 2025
These resources were first presented at Open House #2 in March, and cover the guiding principles, goals, and actions that are being considered as primary drivers for the planning and design work.
Principles & Goals ACTIONS FLYERS
Innerbelt Newsletter #1
Release Date: April 4, 2025
The first edition of our monthly newsletter detailing the current state of the Innerbelt Master Plan Process. This edition covers Open House #2, upcoming engagement events, an introduction to our Community Coordinators, and the State of the Planning Area report.
Innerbelt Master Plan: State of the Planning Area
Release Date: 3/18/2025
The State of the Planning Area Report is first among a series of products coming out of the Innerbelt Master Plan process. The Report analyzes and documents key conditions and trends in and around the former Innerbelt land. It’s intended to help the community, the City, and the planning team establish a shared understanding of the planning area before we begin to reimagine its future.
Read the State of the Planning Area Report
Phase 1 Report
The Reconnecting Our Community - Phase 1 Report documents the work of the initiative’s first two years from 2021 to 2023, the goals of which have been to reckon with the Innerbelt’s past and begin to work with Akron residents to imagine a healed future for it.
Innerbelt History Collection
In 2023, we launched the Innerbelt History Collection on the Summit Memory website in collaboration with the Akron-Summit County Public Library. The collection is an archival effort to make sure that the stories and images of what happened (and the life of the neighborhood that used to exist) can be preserved for future generations to know and learn from.
Go to the Innerbelt History Collection