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Akron Advances Its Plan For Bringing People Back To Downtown

Plan on display at the Civic
Tim Rudell
/
WKSU
Plan on display at the Civic

The plannerscharged with imagining how Akron’s downtown will grow and change over the next 10 years held their third and final gathering Wednesday night at the Akron Civic Theatre.

Vibrant, livable, connected, pro-active: Consultants working on the Downtown Akron Vision and Redevelopment Plan say that’s what months of studies show Akron citizens want downtown to be. The planners also did a presentation on making that happen. 

Craig Sampsell of Akron was in the audience.

“I think the people that really value downtown and now look forward to that change, and letting people outside city see what it has to offer, we can be a vibrant downtown”

Richard King, also of Akron, also likes the plan, but says the presentation needed one more thing.

“I didn’t have that feeling that there is enough emphasis on what’s been done so far, and that we can actually do this. “

Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan takes the state at the Civic
Credit Tim Rudell / WKSU
/
WKSU
Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan takes the state at the Civic

Akron Mayor Dan Mayor Dan Horrigan, who took to the stage at the end of the formal presentation added a comment addressing that idea.

“Downtown must more than just a destination for work. It must become a thriving neighborhood and this plan gives us a map to get there. We have already started to implement many of the recommendations and seized upon opportunities identified in Phase One and Two. With 200 new housing units in the pipeline for 2018 and 2019 we are working very hard to create a new residential downtown.”

Horrigan on momentum

After taking into account feedback from this last of the public meetings, the consultants will put the plan into final form and deliver it early next year.  

Copyright 2021 WKSU. To see more, visit WKSU.

Akron Advances Its Plan For Bringing People Back To Downtown

Tim Rudell
Tim Rudell has worked in broadcasting and news since his student days at Kent State in the late 1960s and early 1970s (when he earned extra money as a stringer for UPI). He began full time in radio news in 1972 in his home town of Canton, OH.