Akron looks to deflate minimum lot size rules to spur infill

Leaders in Akron, a heartland city nearly 40 miles south of Cleveland, hope to shed the city’s “Rust Belt” label and drive its emerging revival by making it easier to build new homes.

To achieve the objective, planners believe they’re on the verge of eliminating minimum lot sizes to counteract a shrinking-city paradox. Population loss left hundreds of vacant lots behind, but decades-old zoning rules make building on them a virtual nonstarter.

The one-time Rubber Capital of the World lost much of its manufacturing base. Now, with housing affordability a national concern, Akron is re-emerging as an increasingly attractive and affordable city.

Across the Midwest, legacy industrial cities like Akron are showing quiet signs of renewed interest after years of neglect. Rust Belt cities largely sat out the COVID-19 pandemic housing frenzy that sent Sun Belt prices skyrocketing in Austin, Phoenix and Nashville. Remote work drove a wave of relocations toward warmer, faster-growing regions, pulling workers and investment away from the industrial heartland.

That same dynamic left Midwest cities with something Sun Belt metros lost – relative affordability. Akron and similar cities are positioning themselves as accessible alternatives for buyers priced out elsewhere.

“In older American cities, arbitrary zoning rules like minimum lot size regulations often make it illegal to redevelop existing vacant lots and build naturally affordable housing in closer-in neighborhoods,” Nolan Gray, a historian and author of “Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It,” wrote on social media. “Akron is wising up and eliminating these mandates.”

Tire industry goes flat

Akron’s industrialization began in the 1870s when Benjamin Goodrich established a rubber company there. Cheap water, skilled labor and rail access made the city an ideal fit.

Goodyear, Firestone and U.S. Rubber followed, and together they produced most of the nation’s tires. The city’s population peaked near 290,000 in the 1960s.

Radial tires eventually overtook the market, and the major tire companies failed to pivot. Foreign competition accelerated factory closures. Goodyear is the only one that still maintains its headquarters in Akron.

Jobs disappeared, neighborhoods hollowed out and residents left. Today, the population is about 190,000.

Turning around

Since the 1990s, Akron has pursued various efforts to revive its urban core. In 2017, the Downtown Akron Partnership and the city launched a coordinated strategy targeting Main Street – public realm improvements, streetscaping and attracting residential and retail development.

The effort sparked significant adaptive reuse. In the Bowery District, a conversion delivered 92 luxury apartments and opened in 2020 as the flagship project of that era. Market-rate downtown apartments grew from roughly 450 in 2019 to more than 1,000 units complete or under construction by last year.

The most ambitious conversion yet involves two former B.F. Goodrich industrial buildings at the site where Akron’s rubber empire first took root. Developers are transforming the complex into market-rate apartments.

Goodrich Building 10, constructed in 1915, will yield 46 units. The $18 million project is backed by $4.4 million in historic tax credits. Its neighbor, Goodrich Building 17, is the larger bet. It will have 82 units at a $30.3 million cost, with $5 million in tax credits helping close the financing gap.

Filling in vacant lots

Zoning changes in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s pushed development outward with bigger lot requirements suited for sprawl, not Akron’s denser urban grid, Planning Director Kyle Julien told the Akron Beacon Journal. To build a duplex today, builders must navigate a special permitting process.

“We have to ask ourselves as a city, why do we make them do that extra step?” Julien said. “Let’s remove the extra step and get them spending their time and their money building houses and putting people in quality homes instead of going through bureaucracy.”

Eliminating the minimum lot size would allow builders to place homes on existing small lots without seeking a variance. The Akron Planning Commission recently renewed three programs to sell nearly 400 city-owned vacant lots to builders, individual buyers and neighboring homeowners. But officials acknowledge that many parcels remain legally off-limits for new construction without a zoning code change.

Julien has been making the case publicly, presenting historical population density maps showing how much land the city once built on – and how much sits idle today. The reform aims to simplify development, expand housing options and raise the quality standard for new homes.

Akron’s population posted modest gains in 2023 and 2024 before slipping again. City officials argue that reversing the long-term decline requires attracting builders and middle-income residents — not just managing the losses. A more flexible zoning code, they say, is a prerequisite.