Beginning this week, developers who want to build a home in Akron will be able to use off-the-shelf plans that already meet the city’s approval for construction.
The Made in Akron designs, announced last fall, are intended to make it faster and more affordable to build homes in existing neighborhoods in the city.
The variations in the plans, from a cottage to a three-unit building, allow for homes on narrow lots and those that can house multiple families — providing six housing options that suit the needs of a variety of Akron residents, said Kyle Julien, the city’s planning director.
“I love these,” Julien said of the finished designs. “I think these are really well-done houses.”
The homes were designed by Ryan Grass of Grassroots Architects, who said previously that the project could save a builder anywhere from three to eight months waiting for city approval of their plans. Julien said previously they’re also expected to save builders about $8,000 in construction costs.
Grass, he said, “understood from the get-go what we were going for in terms of building off of what is already here.”
“It fits in a lot of neighborhoods,” Julien said.
Akron releases pattern book to explain housing standards
The completion of Grass’ pre-approved plans come as the city also releases a pattern book to help explain Akron’s housing standards — where a home should sit on a lot, where garages should be placed, what rooflines should look like and how many windows there should be.
As a whole, Julien said, the intention is to help build beautiful streets that match what’s already in place. The standards ensure that the front of a home is active, with a porch instead of a garage, and help keep streets safe. They help make neighborhoods more walkable and allow new homes to feel compatible with existing ones.
“Walking around Akron, we can see the classic homebuilding patterns that have shaped our city and how elements like welcoming front porches, generous windows, and tree-shaded sidewalks create better blocks and a better city,” Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said in an introduction to the pattern book.
Malik added that it’s an important piece of the city’s strategy to improve quality housing, including by ensuring that new homes will contribute to the creation of strong neighborhoods.
The end result, Julien said, is homes that have an architectural relationship with what is happening around them.
“We have a lot of houses that have been built in the city that don’t necessarily have a relationship to the block,” Julien said. “They don’t amplify the good things in the block, and we need that.”
With Grass’ designs and the new, illustrated building standards, the homes Akron wants to build should focus on the sidewalks, Julien said, and fit in the hollowed-out spaces where demolished houses once stood.
In 2025, there were 64 applications for tax abatements on new home construction in Akron, which city spokesperson Stephanie Marsh called a good proxy for homes that were built in the city. Census data shows more than 40 percent of homes in the city were built before 1950. Last year, the city said, it demolished 96 blighted homes; the city owns hundreds of vacant lots where homes once stood.
Encouraging new construction in spaces where homes already existed will help Akron get the best value for investments the city has already made in infrastructure like streets and water and sewer lines, Julien said.
“We have an imperative to put people back where they were,” he said. “It’s why the lot size requirement needs to change. It’s important for the fiscal health of the city.”
Plans include six types of houses, from cottage to multi-family
Some of Grass’ designs would make use of a more narrow lot, fitting homes into a space that’s 30 feet wide. The two-story, three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom narrow home would be slightly smaller than the traditional single-family home Grass designed.
He has six designs in all, some with variations that rotate the building or add an attached garage for a total of 10 housing options. They are:
- A one-story, 1,120-square-foot cottage with two bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms.
- A two-story, 1,272-square-foot starter home with three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms and a basement.
- A narrow home with three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms and a basement on two stories over 1,429 square feet.
- A standard single-family home on two stories, with three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms and a basement over 1,493 square feet.
- A side-by-side duplex on 2,005 square feet. The duplex has two mirrored units that are each two bedrooms with one and a half bathrooms, plus a basement.
- A 2,512-square-foot three-unit building with two stacked apartments plus a rear single-story apartment. The stacked apartments would each have two bedrooms and one bathroom, while the single-story apartment would have one bedroom and one bathroom.
Julien said the plans top out at three-unit buildings because a four-unit building requires adherence to the commercial building code. A three-unit building, he said, “looks like a big house” and makes sense for neighborhood infill.
The plans, and the work that was done to create them, represent “a shared commitment to creating homes that respect Akron’s architectural character while supporting future growth and investment,” Summit County Land Bank Executive Director Patrick Bravo said in the pattern book.
“By providing accessible design guidance and pre-reviewed concepts, we hope to encourage new construction that is both practical and reflective of the unique identity of Akron’s neighborhoods,” he wrote. “Strong communities are built through collaboration, intentional planning, and investment in quality housing opportunities for residents.”
Development guidelines can help create stronger neighborhoods
In the end, Julien said, the aim is to incentivize people to build the kind of houses Akron wants, in the areas where the city wants them, by helping developers save money and time and laying out the city’s priorities.
The guiding principle, the pattern book says, is that private development is responsible for shaping the street — the public realm. Julien said he continually shares a quote by the architect Louis Kahn to underline what he feels the city must focus on:
“The street is a room by agreement, a community room, the walls of which belong to the donors, dedicated to the city for common use. Its ceiling is the sky.”
Homes built on city-owned land or using city money are required to meet the standards, but Julien said he hopes others will follow suit as well. That focus on the street as a community space, he said, is what makes a city and what he hopes the new housing plans will underline.
“You have an obligation to do that,” Julien said. “We’re trying to make it clear what that obligation is and fulfill it.”
Julien said he hopes that, in the first year, each of the types of housing is built at least once. If there’s a need to add more housing types, he said, the city is willing to do so.
Similar projects have had success in other Midwestern cities in spurring new home construction on existing lots, and Julien said he hopes that’s the case in Akron, too.
“Our job is to create a baseline for infill that’ll get the most traction,” he said. “It’s showing how infill can be done.”
