A $10 million federal grant to help redevelop a decommissioned portion of Akron’s Innerbelt is at risk of being recalled.
The money, awarded in January from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program, is meant to help the city implement its redevelopment ideas for the Innerbelt, which former Mayor Dan Horrigan said caused “lasting harm” to a once-vibrant Black community.
Friday, a spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes, who championed the grant, said the DOT confirmed that any projects that did not have a grant agreement in place prior to 2025 were subject to review. The Reconnecting Communities grant was announced Jan. 8. No further information about the review process was available.
Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said Friday that he went to Washington, D.C., last month to advocate for federal funds for the city. He said he did not meet with anyone from the DOT but has made it clear to elected officials who represent Akron that the Innerbelt project is a priority.
“It is concerning,” he said of the DOT review. “We think this is a really important investment.”
Planning for Innerbelt project continues to move forward
Malik stressed that the city did receive an earlier planning grant of close to $1 million. Akron continues to move forward with its planning process for the Innerbelt. The city will hold its next open house March 18 at 5 p.m. at the offices of the Akron Urban League, 440 Vernon Odom Blvd., to get feedback from residents about what they would like to see happen with the project.
Malik said he hasn’t been told that the money had been frozen, just that all DOT projects were being reevaluated.
President Donald Trump has been working to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the federal government; the Reconnecting Communities program is for communities “harmed by past transportation infrastructure decisions.”
Before the Innerbelt project began in 1970, the community that was displaced by the four-mile, six-lane highway that divides Akron was home to more than 700 homes, 100 businesses and several religious institutions. Malik said in January that the story of the Innerbelt was “the story of not being thoughtful.”
Friday, the mayor said he hoped the federal money would be a funding source. But he said the DOT’s $10 million, plus a $10 million local match, were never going to be enough to complete the project. He said because planning is ongoing, the city had not expected to apply for money to enact its plans until later this year. The administration of former President Joe Biden moved up the deadlines to push funding forward.
Priorities for federal funding have changed with Trump administration
The previous focus on equity in transportation projects has “changed a lot,” said Matt Stewart, the transportation planning administrator for the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study.
Stewart said that the Reconnecting Communities program was “currently paused” and that he didn’t know whether the money would go forward. He called it “unprecedented” to potentially pull money that was already allocated in the federal transportation bill.
Stewart said he was aware of at least one project, on Kent’s East Main Street, that was ready to go to bid when the funding was paused. He was able to help make up the gap by connecting the project with available state funds but said the past few weeks have been stressful for transportation planners.
The Innerbelt project could still receive the money it was granted, he said. Regardless of the outcome, even the pause on grants that have already been announced is “not normal.”
“Where that lands, I currently can’t speculate,” Stewart said. “Obviously, the goals of that program are pretty counter [to] the current administration.”
