Summit Lake Transformation Plan
A Choice Neighborhoods Transformation Plan that expands lakefront investment into the neighborhood.
Once home to Summit Beach Park, a lakefront destination amusement park, the Summit Lake neighborhood began to decline in the mid-20th century following a series of blows: heavy pollution of the lake, redlining, highway construction, suburbanization, and the decline of the tire industry. Today, half of the neighborhood’s properties are vacant, and over one-third of the remaining population lives in poverty.
The opening of the Towpath Trail next to the Summit Lake Apartments and launch of the Akron Civic Commons initiative in the 2010s jumpstarted new investment in public space around the lake. Our neighborhood transformation plan provides the template for new housing, new parks, and other public improvements throughout the community.