more" /> more" /> more" />
The Well CDC
  • Search
  • Menu Canvas
    • ABOUT US
      • OUR STORY
      • OUR TEAM
      • OUR TENANTS
    • PROGRAMS
      • COMPASS
      • AKRON FOOD WORKS
      • COMMUNITY TOOL LIBRARY
      • AKRON HOPE
    • RESERVATIONS
      • OUR FACILITIES
      • PRIVATE & CORPORATE
      • WEDDINGS
      • CONFERENCE ROOM
    • GET INVOLVED
      • EVENTS
      • DONATE
      • VOLUNTEER
      • RECENT NEWS
      • CAREERS
    • NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN
    • CONTACT US
    • DONATE NOWDONATE NOW
The Well CDC
  • ABOUT US
    • OUR STORY
    • OUR TEAM
    • OUR TENANTS
  • PROGRAMS
    • COMPASS
    • AKRON FOOD WORKS
    • COMMUNITY TOOL LIBRARY
    • AKRON HOPE
  • RESERVATIONS
    • OUR FACILITIES
    • PRIVATE & CORPORATE
    • WEDDINGS
    • CONFERENCE ROOM
  • GET INVOLVED
    • EVENTS
    • DONATE
    • VOLUNTEER
    • RECENT NEWS
    • CAREERS
  • NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN
  • CONTACT US
  • DONATE NOWDONATE NOW

Middlebury Neighborhood Plan unveiled

Homepage Community Development Middlebury Neighborhood Plan unveiled
Community Development

Middlebury Neighborhood Plan unveiled

January 16, 2019
By Kelly McHood
0 Comment
1699 Views

Zac Kohl pointed to a vacant lot behind the 114-year-old Presbyterian Church his community development organization bought in 2016. The empty land between two houses is too narrow to build on, according to zoning rules that stand in the way of progress.

Across from the repurposed church at 647 E. Market St., construction crews are replacing a demoed Chase Bank with another building that looks to be marooned from the sidewalk by a parking lot. Storefronts closer to the street encourage more foot traffic, Kohl said.

He and his partners in community development, which include the city, say Market Street is too wide at 64 feet across. It’s dangerous to cross on foot with no on-street parking or bike lanes, which promote business and connect people and places.

As a local resident and the director of the Well Community Development Corp., Kohl hired a consultancy firm in May to collect ideas like these from 200 neighbors. At City Hall and Family of Faith United Methodist Church this week, the public got a first look at what’s become the Middlebury Neighborhood Plan, a blueprint for a more connected community.

The multifaceted plan calls for new zoning. More noticeable suggestions include murals, arched lighting and landscaping the bridges over state Route 8 to create welcoming gateways into Middlebury, or installing trails and platforms that overlook the Little Cuyahoga River, a hidden gem that industrialists used in the founding of Middlebury as the manufacturing hub that built Akron.

The plan connects public and private projects already underway, offering Middlebury up as more than just a place to drive by.

A setting to develop

Middlebury’s 2,700 homes are the second cheapest in Akron’s 24 neighborhoods, just behind nearby University Park. At 70 percent, no other Akron community has a greater share of homes built before 1940.

Values suffer from the city’s No. 2 vacancy rate and No. 6 rental rate. Middlebury’s 5,405 residents — statistically some of the city’s youngest, poorest and least educated — live in a broken housing market. Risk-averse lenders, blight and unemployment block neighborhood-stabilizing home ownership. Without living-wage jobs and a mortgage, families struggle to build equity.

Facing these challenges, Middlebury formed one of Akron’s few community development corporations guiding local development from the bottom up. A group of business, nonprofit, church and community leaders called the Neighborhood Network, which fills a void left by the failed University Park Alliance, met in February to lay a sober foundation for the plan unveiled this week. Attendees grappled with Middlebury’s problems and solutions, its deficits and assets, how to respect the past and plan for shared prosperity by helping those with the least.

Five contradictions emerge:

• Older than Akron and centrally located, Middlebury has no center. The plan identifies the high-traffic nexus of Arlington, Exchange and Market streets.

• With 40 percent in poverty, residents walk “unwalkable” paths, like a sidewalk-less single vehicle entrance to Dave’s Supermarket.

• Middlebury is working class without enough jobs. At a rate nearly double the city, 46 percent of households live on less than $20,000 annually.

• The University of Akron, Summa’s Akron City Hospital and other anchor institutions do not anchor their wealth or workers in this drive-through community.

• 75 percent of property belongs to people who don’t live in Middlebury.

At the moment, the housing market discourages lending or investing. Kohl’s agency keeps buying and fixing homes to sell to responsible owners. On track to buy and sell 60 housing units in 60 months, the Well CDC is building a critical mass of ownership, forcing landlords to keep rents reasonable while maintaining their properties.

Mission-driven, Kohl waits for the day when “the market and moral imperative overlap.” He’s put his money where his mouth is, personally investing $60,000 in one home later appraised at $36,000.

Mindful zoning

Kyle Julien, a Neighborhood Network member and planning director at East Akron Neighborhood Development Corp., likes to talk about Middlebury’s strong bones — its sturdily built century homes and sensible street layout.

To put meat back on those bones, Julien is asking the city for more flexible zoning. He said building rules should differ from nearby Ellet, a community developed decades later with newer homes and more distinct commercial and residential areas.

The plan bets an economic future on the adaptive reuse of old factories, churches and office spaces, and the liberal commingling of businesses and homes. Mixing business, residential and light industrial property uses, pushing storefronts toward sidewalks and recognizing the road-by-road complexities of how the neighborhood developed “will allow Middlebury to come back into its own in a way that respects the historic structure,” Julien said.

Who’s next?

The Middlebury Neighborhood Plan, which drew on surveys and door-knocking interviews of 200 residents, was funded by Huntington Bank’s Akron Community Revitalization Fund, which grows $2 million a year for a decade to sustain community-based development.

Nick Browning, Akron regional president for Huntington, said he’s “prepared” to help all eight neighborhoods targeted by the fund. He’s talking to North Hill. And may go next to West Hill or East Akron. Community development corporations (CDCs) in each have started grass-roots conversations around planning. The last in line are South Akron, Summit Lake and Sherbondy Hill, which share Middlebury’s dire statistics but lacks its business base and CDC.

“When I talked to Mayor [Dan] Horrigan about the places where we can best help, he said, ‘the neighborhoods,’ ” Browning said.

A fan of synergy and MKSK Studios, which also designed community-driven development plans this year for downtown and Kenmore, Browning followed the Knight Foundation. In Kenmore, North Hill and Middlebury, Knight helped residents reimagine their neighborhoods in a day of experimental pop-up stores and temporarily altered traffic patterns.

“I’m really happy that they’ve come up with plans for Kenmore, Middlebury and downtown that are actionable,” Kyle Kutuchief, Knight’s Akron program director, said of plans with doable projects and initiatives. “A lot of times we go through planning processes and end up with something that’s too much of a stretch.”

Reach Doug Livingston at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com.


Previous Story
Homeowners in Akron’s Middlebury neighborhood offered home-maintenance class, rentable power-tools
Next Story
The Well launches home maintenance class series

Related Articles

Homeowners in Akron’s Middlebury neighborhood offered home-maintenance class, rentable power-tools

By Jennifer Conn, Akron reporter, cleveland.com AKRON, Ohio - The Well...

New Life for an Old Church

June 1, 2018  by Alissa Danckaert-Skovira Alissa Danckaert-Skovira is a lifelong...

Recent Post

  • Vote for The Well CDC to win $25,000 from the State Farm Neighborhood Assist! Tuesday, 20, Aug
  • 2016-2018 Community Impact Report Monday, 18, Mar
  • Zac Kohl & Kelly Ashley, The Well’s Home Maintenance Classes Wednesday, 23, Jan
  • The Well launches home maintenance class series Wednesday, 23, Jan
  • Middlebury Neighborhood Plan unveiled Wednesday, 16, Jan

Instagram

Load More...Follow on Instagram

Tags

cleveland.com Compass Coffee GAR Foundation Housing The Well Akron
The Well CDC exists to give worth, value, and dignity back to the communities of Akron.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Contact Us

Email Us

office@thewellakron.com

Call Us

(330)-815-1062

Visit Us

647 East Market Street Akron, Ohio 44304

Copyright ©2018 The Well Community Development Corporation. All Rights Reserved
SearchPostsLoginCart
Tuesday, 20, Aug
Vote for The Well CDC to win $25,000 from the State Farm Neighborhood Assist!
Monday, 18, Mar
2016-2018 Community Impact Report
Wednesday, 23, Jan
Zac Kohl & Kelly Ashley, The Well’s Home Maintenance Classes
Wednesday, 23, Jan
The Well launches home maintenance class series
Wednesday, 16, Jan
Middlebury Neighborhood Plan unveiled
Wednesday, 16, Jan
Homeowners in Akron’s Middlebury neighborhood offered home-maintenance class, rentable power-tools

Welcome back,