AKRON, Ohio — West Hill is one of the smallest of Akron’s roughly 24 neighborhoods, but it encompasses some of the city’s most interesting landmarks and features.
The historic Glendale Cemetery, and equally revered Glendale Steps, are the stuff of legend for both locals and historians. So is Cadillac Hill, an old brick street, now-closed, whose hill had the steepest grade in the city.
While a citizen-led economic development corporation has been active in West Hill in one form or another since 1997, none of the iterations ever gained a lot of traction — until now.
The leadership of the current CDC, the West Hill Neighborhood Organization, intends to announce its reinvigorated presence to the city through a community-wide bash planned to allow Akronites to see first-hand what’s great about the neighborhood.
West Hill’s inaugural WonderFest Arts & Music Festival runs 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 8 at the Spotted Owl Akron, 60 S. Maple St. The event will feature live music on two stages, and offer food, vendors and walking tours.
“We want to get people walking around the area, and realizing, okay, this is a pretty interesting area,” said West Hill Neighborhood Organization President David Swirsky.
The centerpiece of WonderFest is a plan to showcase a West Hill neighborhood feature most other Akron neighborhoods do not have — a UPD-40.
Simply put, UPD-40 is a district zoned to allow West Hill residents to open small businesses in the homes in which they live.
“We want to attract entrepreneurs to locate here to do residential and business in the same building,” Swirsky said. “We’ll be kind of celebrating that and promoting it.”
Further telling that story during WonderFest will be many of the artists and entrepreneurs who already live in the neighborhood, he said.
“WonderFest is almost like our version of Better Block or PorchRokr, where it’s a neighborhood pride thing,” he said.
When the WHNO was brainstorming names for its signature event, board members tossed around adjectives that describe what they like about West Hill, he said.
“It’s a little weird. It’s a little funky. It’s historic and wonderful,” Swirsky said. “We thought it would be cool marketing, you know, ‘have you ever wondered about West Hill?’”
Swirsky points out that CDCs in other Akron neighborhoods usually have a niche — housing in Middlebury, the Boulevard in Kenmore, music in Highland Square and international amenities in North Hill.
For West Hill, with its many Victorian homes, it makes sense to draw greater artistic flair to the neighborhood to help drive economic development through the groundwork that’s been in place for years.
WonderFest will feature many of the artists and entrepreneurs who live in the neighborhood. (Courtesy of WHNO)
In 1991, the city designated areas of West Hill’s Crosby and Maple streets “Victorian Village” to encourage economic development. But designation never took off the way the city had anticipated.
Fast forward to 2018 when Akron City Council approved another effort to bring commercial activity to the neighborhood. The city amended its zoning again, this time expanding Victorian Village, creating a UPD-40 District now known as West Hill Village, which encompasses Glendale Avenue as well as Maple, Hall and Crosby streets.
Within the UPD-40, homeowners can set up small businesses in their homes across a range professions, from photography studios, apparel shops and hair care salons to bakeries, bed and breakfast inns and day-care centers.
Residents can make and sell their wares on-site, and even offer carryout sales of beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages if they are made on premises within the UPD-40.
Another advantage is Akron homeowners who make certain improvements to their living quarters can take advantage of a residential property tax abatement, although improvements made on the commercial portion of the dwelling would not be eligible for an abatement.
The WHNO plans to create professional marketing materials to attract entrepreneurs who want to live in the neighborhood, Swirsky said, but, as with most CDCs, funding can be a challenge.
The group gets a CDC support grant from the city, and has feelers out for additional funding to get the momentum needed to successfully market the UPD-40.
WHNO has applied for an ARPA grant specifically for CDCs, that would enable the organization to buy a property in the UPD-40 district that it could own and rehab, Swirsky said.
“We would create it to be like a model where we’d have rotating entrepreneurs actually placing their products or services on the first floor,” he said. “So it would be like the model home for the live-work district.”
Another action the WKNO is taking is surveying people who live in West Hill to get a better sense of their preferences for the neighborhood’s future.
To learn more about WonderFest and the West Hill Neighborhood Organization, visit the group’s website.
