The Adolph Street garden is one of Let’s Grow Akron’s most active sites as well as one of the largest plots the group manages. Over the 12 years that Let’s Grow has used the land, it has become a hub for the Middlebury neighborhood.
“What I enjoy about that garden is the location of it. It serves University of Akron students. It serves Summa employees, neighbors, obviously, the international community,” said Executive Director Lisa Nunn. “There’s a really diverse group of community gardeners there.”
But after the 2024 growing season, the Adolph Street garden will be relocated because it sits on property owned by Summa Health that was rezoned by Akron City Council. The new zoning designations will accommodate a development plan between Summa and real estate company Fairmount Properties.
The garden space, which is located just south of the corner of South Adolph Street and East Market Street, is set to become a parking lot.
The development plan
The zoning ordinance, passed Nov. 27, 2023, identifies parcels of land directly across from Summa’s Middlebury campus as the “East Market Street Urban Overlay Area,” a designation that allows the city to regulate the type, size and placement of new buildings. The regulations are meant to ensure a “high level of walkability.”
The zoning changes implemented in Middlebury will allow Fairmount Properties to develop on parcels of land they plan to lease from Summa.
Adam Branscomb, Fairmount Properties’ vice president of new development, told Akron City Council Oct. 30 the project will include apartments and walkable ground-floor retail as well as hospitality spaces. He said it could bring an investment of $55 million to $60 million and create 230 permanent jobs and 350 construction jobs.
“A lot of the forward-thinking cities across the country have adopted a form-based zoning code to try to encourage and enable the right kind of development,” Branscomb said.
Pending HATCo acquisition of Summa not likely to interfere
Form-based zoning, used in the overlay area for the Middlebury development, is a system that breaks areas down into many small districts and uses pictures and illustrations, in addition to text and tables, to set design standards. It can impose a range of requirements or limitations, such as how tall a building should be or what type of foliage is allowed in a designated area.
Read more: An Akron neighborhood guide to Middlebury
Middlebury is not the only Akron neighborhood where form-based zoning codes are being implemented. The Merriman Valley adopted the practice to help shape the development of a gateway community to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and a form-based zoning proposal is being considered by Akron City Council for the Summit Lake neighborhood.
“Summa Health is very supportive of the project and has worked with Fairmount on creating the vision for an institutionally-anchored, mixed-use wellness village consisting of hotel space, single-family living, dining and retail options,” Summa said in an emailed statement. “The goal is to provide the community access to healthy foods, wellness-oriented programming and greenspace.”
And despite Summa’s anticipated acquisition by venture capital firm HATCo, Branscomb said in an email the development team is proceeding with predevelopment activities as planned, in close collaboration with Summa and the community.
“While we view the proposed HATCo acquisition to be a very exciting opportunity for Summa, our focus remains on delivering a world class Wellness Village for Akron’s first neighborhood,” Branscomb said in the email.
And Summa stated, “At this point, the proposed transaction with HATCo is not impacting our work with Fairmount and we continue to work through the diligence process with the Fairmount team.”
What is considered a healthy neighborhood?
“I understand why development is important to the city,” Let’s Grow Akron’s Nunn said. But she also said it’s important to preserve growing spaces.
Residents’ concerns go beyond just having access to green space.
“My biggest concern with the development, honestly, is the long-term effect on the neighborhood, with respect to gentrification,” said Avery Duff, an Adolph Street resident and community farm manager at Let’s Grow Akron.
Middlebury, which saw the first Euro-American settlers in 1807, is Akron’s oldest neighborhood. It was annexed by the city in 1872 and went on to become the home of the burgeoning rubber industry. With the decline of Akron’s economy in the 1970s, Middlebury saw many of its businesses shuttered.
Now, with a population of around 6,075 residents, the 2021 median household income was $30,288 compared to Akron’s $41,628.
Higher incomes, higher rents a possible result of development plan
Jeff Fusco, City Council vice president and chair of the Planning and Economic Development Committee, said it did not make sense to turn the development down altogether because it would lead to improvements in healthcare and the local economy.
“You’re going to have interns living there, which is great for the economy of the local area and attracting jobs to that area. And people are not going to live in other places or be out of Akron, but they’re actually going to be in Akron, they’re actually going to be in Middlebury. I believe that is going to be a tremendous asset,” Fusco said.
With the addition of apartments, Summa and Fairmount’s development would bring an influx of people with higher incomes into Middlebury.
“This was pitched as a positive thing by the developer at the meetings I went to,” Duff said. “It was like, ‘This will have a ripple effect on the neighborhood, and landlords are gonna rehab their houses and start charging way more for the rent.’ And they view that as this great thing, and to me, that’s like, a nightmare.”
Duff said they have spoken to neighbors who are afraid their houses will be bought by another landlord and the rent will go up, or that Summa will buy their home and tear it down.
“I don’t want to see my neighbors getting displaced. I don’t want to see myself not be able to afford living here anymore,” they said.
Gentrification refers to when new development creates a demographic and economic shift, displacing lower-income, working-class communities; this occurs when there is no balance between economic growth and protecting the existing community.
“That’s always a concern, without question,” Fusco said. “That was a discussion that we had, I believe, during one of the committee meetings. We’re just going to have to be mindful of it.”
Gathering input from residents
On Nov. 27, a few hours before City Council was set to vote on the zoning ordinance, an email was sent to council members. The email included a letter from citizens recommending changes for the overlay area.
The recommended changes included:
- Requiring development and zoning changes to go through the Akron Urban Design and Historic Preservation Commission
- Capping building heights at four stories in the East Market overlay
- Adding green plant buffers and larger buffers between private residences and surface parking lots
- Explicitly prohibiting parking decks
- Making street parking more accessible, which would include maintaining free parking
The letter explained that the writers were “not against development, but have deep concerns about the lack of meaningful public participation and lack of grace and care given to current residents of the affected blocks who may be marginalized and negatively impacted, and even possibly displaced, due to the decisions made by City Council.”
Some of the letter writers, along with other Middlebury residents, canvassed 100 houses Nov. 4 in the blocks affected by the future overlay district. According to the letter, none of the residents had heard of the development or received a notice in the mail.
“It was a surprise to them. Nobody that we talked to knew about the project, and nobody that we talked to was in favor of it,” said Duff, who was one of the Adolph Street residents who signed the letter.
Notices of open comment public hearings are posted online at least 15 days prior to zoning meetings and published in the Akron Beacon Journal. They are also “mailed to the owners and residents of property within, contiguous to, and directly across the street from the property involved in the Ordinance,” meaning that if a resident lives two doors down from the development, the city is not required to notify them.
“We will inform just the immediate neighborhood, or those that are adjacent to the property. We’ll inform those folks there’s a public hearing,” Fusco said. Which is good. It’s not as good as it could be.” Finding ways for council members to better engage with residents is on Fusco’s wish list for 2024 — communicating through social media is a possibility, he said.
“In terms of a lot of developments that we’ve had in the past, both Summa and Fairmount worked very hard to have meetings in the community.” Fusco said he would rate the two companies as “very good” in terms of reaching out to the public and keeping them informed.
“I understand that we can always do a better job, and we hear those voices and we’re going to commit to doing our best for next year. Even better,” Fusco said.
