A City of Akron effort to focus new development on creating safe, welcoming and attractive public spaces has centered on an unexpected location: a gas station at a busy, six-way intersection.
The Circle K proposed at 786 Brittain Road in Goodyear Heights, on a lot housing a CVS building that has been vacant for more than two years, is slated to be reconfigured so the portion of the property that faces the intersection with Eastland and Eastwood avenues is not a parking lot but a park.
Akron City Council will hold a public hearing to discuss the proposal today at 5 p.m. Afterward, at its regular 6:30 p.m. meeting, Council Member Sharon Connor, who represents the area, said she expects other council members to approve the conditional use that will change the look of the intersection.
“I would love a unanimous yes,” she said. “I think people will like it.”
The city has slowly been changing the way it thinks about how neighborhoods are laid out and what should be where, Planning Director Kyle Julien said. In two neighborhoods — the Merriman Valley and Summit Lake — it has changed the zoning rules about development to be less restrictive about what can be built in areas where people work, shop or live.
The changes in those neighborhoods will slowly be rolled out across the rest of the city, Julien said. But in the meantime, when new development is proposed, officials can push for ways to meet the city’s new goals.
“The zoning code represents the goals and values of a community,” said Daniel DeAngelo, a city planner and architect for Akron. “We want it to be a welcoming place, to be safe for pedestrians and to be interesting to walk down the street.”
A gas station with green space?
For the Brittain Road Circle K, officials hashed out an agreement that will mean green space with benches and a trash can will fill the triangular portion of the lot, at the Six Points intersection. The convenience store portion of the gas station will come next, and its back will face the intersection. The gas pumps themselves will be at the widest portion of the lot, perpendicular to Brittain Road.
Orienting the gas station that way has a lot of benefits, Connor said. It makes the visual for cars driving past one of a pocket park instead of concrete. It makes it easier for cars to come and go, since the driveway access is farther from the intersection. And it makes it so pedestrians going to the convenience store don’t have to walk through a parking lot full of gas pumps and potentially moving vehicles in order to get a snack or a drink.
Plus, Connor said, the green space, benches and trash can mean that someone who’s stopping to eat will have a place to sit and somewhere to throw away their trash when they’re done. She expects the design to help cut down on littering. It will also give bus riders a more pleasant place to wait, she said.
Making the park-like area the focal point of the gas station, Connor said, is a way to “brighten up” the neighborhood.
Read more about the Circle K proposal from the Akron Planning Commission in Documenter Bruce Taylor’s notes.
“One of the things for me it does is enhance the green space,” she said. “Green space and public space is critical to our emotional and physical well-being.”
Such design is closer to the way Akron was first built, Julien said. He said reverting to those ideals is a way to create a more dynamic city.
“We’re looking for other opportunities where we can make that shift,” he said.
Part of a change to how Akron is planned
Overall, the design philosophy is part of a shift to a form-based zoning code — one that is less prescriptive than the current text-based zoning code that dates to 1922, when Akron was booming and officials wanted to restrict some development. The form-based zoning code, instead, is full of pictures and broad expectations regarding what can be built.
Although the change is in effect in Summit Lake and Merriman Valley, Julien said the gas station will be the first location where the new standards will be on display. He hopes the difference in how the development feels will spur others to want landscaping, pedestrian walkways and other touches that make a space more accessible.
“It makes our streets and potentially our sidewalks safer,” Julien said. “It makes neighborhoods more livable.”
Making it easier for pedestrians to share space with cars by giving clear walking paths “was a victory,” Julien said.
Julien said Circle K officials were cooperative over what Connor called a two-year process to get to this point. A representative from Circle K declined to comment.
Circle K will maintain the green space, Connor said. She added that there are a lot of pedestrians in the area, and having the convenience store accessible will give them a viable place to get milk or bread if they don’t have access to other transportation.
Where development changes could come next
Connor said she appreciates the thoughtful way the city is going about the process of shifting its development priorities. Bringing change to the city “a little at a time” is strategic, she said.
Julien said the city is looking at other areas where Akron can make the shift in its zoning code.
The planning department is moving slowly so neighborhood nuances can be understood and incorporated into any plan, DeAngelo said.
“It’s methodical,” he said. “We’re going through the entire city, neighborhood by neighborhood.”
Sherbondy Hill, and the area around the Innerbelt, is likely the next place to target, DeAngelo said, because the city has a master plan to build from. He suggested Kenmore might also be a good candidate, due to how walkable Kenmore Boulevard is.
As a whole, Julien said, the amount of effort that went into beautifying a Circle K is an example of what thoughtful development can do for a community.
“It’s an idealized version of what development looks like,” he said. “We need to do this. Our zoning code is outdated and doesn’t function great for the world we live in.”