Summit Lake revival: How AMHA, others want to transform a long-neglected Akron neighborhood

Longtime Summit Lake resident Grace Hudson remembers back in the 1970s when her neighborhood was a thriving community.

"There were banks, there were grocery stores, cleaners, barber shops — anything you could think of," said Hudson, 69.

Once home to Summit Beach Park — an amusement park known as "Akron's Million Dollar Playground" — Summit Lake has been decimated by the decline of the rubber industry, suburbanization and redlining.

Summit Lake became a neighborhood facing years of blight with numerous vacant lots and dilapidated housing, foreclosures, evictions, a lack of investment, shuttered schools and a diminishing population.

"This area was neglected, and people didn't really get to appreciate this beautiful lake that's sitting in the middle of the city," Hudson said. "Not just our lakefront area, but our neighborhood as a whole was neglected. There are no amenities down here. You want a cup of coffee? You're going to have to go to a gas station; there is nowhere to get a cup of coffee.”

But that’s slowly changing.

In recent years, the nonprofit Akron Civic Commons has partnered with Let's Grow Akron to offer community gardening or weekly farmer's markets; installed new amenities for residents to enjoy on the lake, including a new pavilion, playground, benches, grills and fire pits; and cleared overgrowth to provide residents more access to the lake.

Now, the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority (AMHA) wants to continue the recent trend of community investment by working with the city of Akron and other local organizations to accelerate Summit Lake’s transformation.

After several years of research and community input, AMHA is moving forward with plans to rebuild and expand its Summit Lake Apartments, as well as to construct new housing on many of the neighborhood's vacant lots. Total cost is estimated at more than $170 million.

“There is nothing more important than a good, safe neighborhood,” AMHA Executive Director Herman Hill said. “This project will significantly increase the number of quality affordable housing units and revolutionize the Summit Lake community.”

Planning Summit Lake's revival

In 2020, an application submitted by AMHA and the city of Akron was one of 11 winners of a $450,000 planning grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Choice Neighborhoods program. The grant contributed toward funding a two-year planning process for this revitalization project.

The planning process was also funded by AMHA, the city of Akron, Summit County, Akron Civic Commons, the Knight Foundation, the GAR Foundation and the Huntington Akron Foundation.

In December 2020, AMHA began a series of community workshops, resident surveys and one-on-one interviews that helped leaders understand Summit Lake and what changes residents wanted to see. This process culminated with the Summit Lake Transformation Plan, which was submitted to HUD in December 2022.

"This whole process was done with the community,”  AMHA Real Estate Manager Erin Palmisano Myers said.  “We spent a lot of time building relationships and learning from the residents what they wanted, and they really kind of set the road map for us. Now, it's our job to try to make all of that happen for them. We're very happy to work that way, and work with people from the Summit Lake community."

Many residents said they want to see new, affordable housing on the vacant lots that plague the community. About 46% of all parcels of land in the neighborhood are empty, leading to more than 85 acres of vacant land.

The number of vacant lots or abandoned properties in Summit Lake far outweighs other Akron neighborhoods, Ward 3 City Councilwoman Margo Sommerville said.

After listening to resident input, AMHA is looking to build infill housing in the neighborhood — which will most likely include duplexes and triplexes — in addition to single-family homes, Myers said.

Somerville praised the work AMHA did to connect with the residents and learn how they wanted their community improved.

"AMHA was really intentional on learning what residents wanted, and most of the complaints centered around the vacant property and abandoned homes in the area that residents say had become a hot spot for nuisances and litter," Sommerville said. "What AMHA and the city of Akron are trying to do is activate these vacant lots, whether for affordable housing or things like a community garden....the community has been regarded as a food desert with few grocery stores, and something like a community garden is what residents want to see; they want to see the transformation of these blighted areas into something positive."

Hudson also appreciates how AMHA utilized a resident-driven planning process, similar to the one previously used by the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition (OECC) for the Akron Civic Commons project.

This Civic Commons project, led by OECC President and CEO Daniel Rice, is part of the national Reimagining the Civic Commons initiative, which focuses on “transforming shared civic assets to foster engagement, equity, environmental sustainability and economic development in cities across the country,” according to OECC’s website.

Akron was chosen as one of five demonstration cities in 2016 for this program, along with Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit and Memphis. Summit Lake was one of three assets selected for Akron’s project.

“Summit Lake is a community that has a legacy of dealing with empty promises and organizations that refuse to work directly with the residents; there is a gulf of mistrust,” Rice said. “We met with the residents and were intentional about honoring commitments made to the residents, who were used to organizations coming in and making promises about revitalizing the community and not fulfilling them.

“The key to this whole process is resident-led, and the meetings and surveys were all focused on finding out how to make Summit Lake as accessible and open to everyone as possible,” Rice said.

Unlike in previous decades, Summit Lake residents have been allowed to have a voice in what they want for their neighborhood thanks to organizations like OECC and AMHA, Hudson said.

"It's all about talking to the residents and finding out what they would like to see and what they would like to do, that's the main thing," Hudson said. "It's obvious the Civic Commons process works because AMHA has adopted the process, the city of Akron has adopted the process. I think the Civic Commons project leaders proved they believe in honesty, transparency, accountability, and really taking the time to listen, and AMHA has done the same thing."

All the efforts to rejuvenate the Summit Lake community are welcome and long overdue, agreed Summit County Council President Veronica Sims, a native of the area.

For a community used to a lack of investment, the engagement process was a breath of fresh air that allowed residents to feel better about outside organizations coming in to revitalize the neighborhood, she said.

AMHA's approach to engaging the community was "a direct result of the roadmap that was laid by the Akron Civic Commons and how they engaged the community," Sims said. "I know that early on in this process, AMHA always wanted to engage the broader Summit Lake community on things such as housing, and other amenities that residents would like to see — and I really think the Civic Commons laid the groundwork for this engagement process."

Lingering distrust from the past

Still, some Summit Lake residents remain skeptical.

Though many residents took part in the community engagement sessions, there were others who didn't want to learn about AMHA's plan because of fear of displacement stemming from the ill-fated Akron Innerbelt project decades ago.

The construction of the Innerbelt highway in the 1960s and ‘70s displaced many Black families who resided in Summit Lake and still has some residents wary of intervention from local institutions, according to Sandra Saulsberry, co-chair of the Summit Lake CDC and a resident of the neighborhood since 1982.

"I wasn't here when the Innerbelt had come through the community, and a lot of people were displaced," Saulsberry said. "You still have some of that hurt within the community, there was something done to our community to make us at a disadvantage far as being able to have access to resources.”

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Saulsberry understands the distrust that some residents have toward outside agencies that seemingly didn't care about the neighborhood or who they displaced.

Organizations like the Akron Civic Commons and AMHA, however, are genuinely interested in bettering the neighborhood to benefit both current and future residents, she said.

The lack of trust for what previous organizations did to the neighborhood in the past should not stop people from engaging with these organizations that are trying to help, Saulsberry noted.

The Summit Lake CDC has strived to make everyone aware of the potential changes to the neighborhood and alert residents to the fact that what happened in the past with the displacement of so many Black families won't happen again, Saulsberry said.

"They're not here to do what was done to residents before,” she said. “They're here to come and bring back into the community better things than what was here before. There are so many people who weren't engaged in this planning process because they were stuck in deep mistrust against what had happened before with the Innerbelt project. I believe that this is a new day and in order to move forward, you're going to have to take a chance.”

Reimagined Summit Lake Apartments would update decades-old site, connect to surrounding neighborhood

Redeveloping the Summit Lake Apartments and integrating the apartments with the surrounding community are chief among resident concerns that AMHA is addressing with its proposal.

The revitalization of this 239-unit public housing development, built in 1965 on the site of Summit Beach Park and purchased by AMHA in 1976, can potentially serve as a major catalyst for uplifting the entire community, officials said.

"Due to [the Summit Lake Apartments'] dated structure, we decided this would be a good investment, there are some capital needs that need to be addressed at the development," Myers said.

AMHA is planning up to 479 units in a mixed-income housing development, with the apartments expanding to include other affordable and market-rate units.

The existing Summit Lake Apartments will be demolished and rebuilt, complete with "new pedestrian-friendly streets that connect it back into the fabric of the Summit Lake neighborhood along with new open space for use by residents and visitors," according to the transformation plan.

The development will contain different types of housing, including townhomes, three-level walk-up apartment buildings and a senior center. Approximately 300 one-to-four bedroom units would be built on the current apartment site, while the remaining up to 170-plus units would be built within the surrounding Summit Lake community.

"We not only want to keep residents here but bring them in to increase a population that has trended downward for decades now, and the building of affordable housing on these vacant lots and the new investment of housing throughout the community as part of this transformation plan will go towards this goal," Myers said.

Along with more housing, AMHA’s plan for Summit Lake also includes strategies aimed towards improving resident services and the neighborhood in general. Some of these strategies include connecting residents with free/low-cost specialized health services, expanding the reach and impact of current workforce programs in Summit Lake, creating programs that focus on increasing financial literacy and achieving financial stability, and supporting the establishment and growth of small businesses.

Other services that AMHA hopes to implement as part of this Choice Neighborhoods plan is supporting existing homeowners with home improvements and making neighborhood streets pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly, as well as developing year-round programming and events for all ages at area parks.

“We are still working with the city and other partners to specifically prioritize and further develop these strategies, and we will likely know more specifics within the next month,” Myers said.

Community, AMHA hope relocating process is minimally disruptive for apartment residents

AMHA understands how disruptive the relocating process can be for apartment residents, and hopes that the majority of residents will choose to return to the new development once construction is completed.

Plans are still in the conceptual stage, but the idea is to work with a relocation consultant and provide support to the residents to make sure they are aware of the process and potential housing options.

"Every resident will have the right to come back to a brand new unit in Summit Lake, and they have the option of taking a tenant protection voucher if they choose to leave," Myers said. "We are looking at building offsite housing in the neighborhood during the beginning phases of this project where residents could then move prior to the beginning of construction at the current apartment site so residents can remain in the neighborhood."

Jasmine Kirk has lived in the Summit Lake Apartments with her young daughter for almost three years.

She said she hopes she is relocated to somewhere else in the neighborhood, and would welcome a return to the updated Summit Lake Apartments.

"I love the area,” she said. “It is very calm and neighborly.  I love the Towpath Trail and the Nature Center that are steps away from my apartment. I would definitely love to move back here after the construction is completed.”

Kirk said unless her daughter is in a new school or she gets another job elsewhere, she’d be “happy to stay” in Summit Lake.

"I'm not a big fan of change,” she said. “I am comfortable in this area.  I know the bus routes over here, and although I'd been warned that living here would not be the safest, I've never encountered anything that would make me fear for my safety. There may not be the most job opportunities here, but there are so many resources here for my daughter and I — especially through the Reach Opportunity Center — and I just hope that AMHA makes this relocation process as smooth as possible," Kirk said.

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What's next?

AMHA is preparing to apply for a federal Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant, which would fund part of the actual construction phase, in addition to contributing to neighborhood improvements and services for residents. AMHA plans to submit its application to HUD this fall or next. If approved, officials believe construction would begin around spring 2025.

Even if AMHA doesn’t receive the grant the first time, officials plan to reapply, Myers noted. The current budget for this project is estimated at more than $170 million.

Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant funding, which has provided up to $40 million for similarly sized developments, and other partner funding will be instrumental.

According to Sommerville, the city also is looking to rezone the area to bring more investment to the long-overlooked community.

"We're trying to modernize and update our zoning codes so that we can create more walkable neighborhoods and have businesses come into the neighborhood with some mixed-use buildings for shopping and residential purposes,” she said. “That's what we are working on right now to make it appealing for developers to want to develop in the Summit Lake neighborhood.”

Reporter Anthony Thompson can be reached at ajthompson@gannett.com. or on Twitter, @athompsonABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: AMHA hopes to revive Akron's Summit Lake neighborhood with federal aid