Highland Square’s Jonathan Morschl wants to turn the soon-to-be-vacated Akron Innerbelt into an urban mountain bike park.
Brian and Tracy Davis of Moreland Hills want to provide trail services, including transportation and baggage handling, to help multiday hikers explore the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
The two outdoor proposals were announced on Tuesday as local winners in the Knight Cities Challenge sponsored by the Florida-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The 37 winning projects will share in the $5 million from the foundation to help cities attract and keep talented people, expand economic opportunities and create a culture of civic engagement. The challenge attracted more than 4,500 proposals in Akron and the 25 other communities where the foundation invests.
The Innerbelt project is “really exciting” and the Cuyahoga Valley park plan “will make it easier for people to explore the park,” said Kyle Kutuchief, Akron program director for the foundation.
The 35-year-old Morschl is getting $120,000 that will be used over the next two years to design his proposed mountain bike park, to get his team together and to finalize the plans. Public meetings will be held.
Mounds, hills and trails would be built on the old highway between West Market and West Mill streets under his plan.
He would like the site to be a permanent facility, but others suggest that it might be on the Innerbelt temporarily and could be moved to a permanent site later.
The city of Akron has indicated that it would like to abandon the highway, perhaps in early 2018.
Additional grants will be sought for the construction, said Morschl, a designer with Four Points Architectural Services in Coventry Township. It is not known how much construction might cost.
It is unclear how Morschl’s plans will fit in with the city’s plans because Morschl has not contacted the city about his proposal, Akron Service Director John Moore said.
Akron would be willing to discuss his project, he said.
New use for highway
In late 2014, former Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic proposed that the highway be abandoned between West Exchange and West Market streets, creating 31 acres near downtown that could be redeveloped.
Akron intends to make improvements to Dart and Rand avenues, one-way streets that run parallel to the Innerbelt. When those upgrades are complete, the Innerbelt will be closed, with traffic rerouted to Dart and Rand.
The downtown highway, built for 120,000 vehicles a day, is used by about 18,000 vehicles daily.
Morschl, a graduate of St. Vincent-St. Mary High School and Kent State University in architecture, said he is proud that his proposal got picked.
“It’s nice to know that someone else believes in it, too,” he said. Having others recognize the potential of his idea makes the selection mean even more, he said.
Morschl, who says he is not much of a mountain biker, describes his goal as simple: to make “our community better.”
A mountain bike park would be a big attraction, Morschl said.
He wants to attract all ages and all experience levels to the proposed mountain bike park, which is based on a similar urban facility in Seattle.
His proposed bike park would add to the outdoor amenities that make Akron special and would be a regional attraction, Morschl said.
It is a proposal that “sounds pretty creative and is an interesting way to utilize space in an urban environment,” said Dan Rice, president and chief executive officer of the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition. He wrote letters supporting both local winners.
Inspired by Germany
The Davises are patterning their Cuyahoga Explore-A-Foot hiking program in the Cuyahoga Valley park after the Eifelsteig trail system in Germany.
They got a grant of $70,000 to connect attractions in the Cuyahoga Valley much like the Eifelsteig trail system connects German villages. It runs nearly 188 miles in 15 stages through the flat countryside of the Aachen District southwest of Bonn.
The Davises envision a local organization that assists with travel arrangements, including Uber connections, and transports luggage from one bed and breakfast to another or to local hotels for hikers.
Such a plan is feasible because of the Towpath Trail, they said in their application.
Davis is a professor and chair of biomedical engineering at the University of Akron. His wife is a teacher with Euclid city schools.
Winning the grant is thrilling, Tracy Davis said via email from South Africa where they are vacationing.
“I think only in America could one be given this opportunity of a lifetime to showcase an alternative way to see Ohio’s national park,” she said.
Her husband added that he is “overjoyed that the Knight Foundation had faith in our project.”
He said the funding will be used to develop a website, fund marketing and create an app for Explore-A-Foot.
Such logistical help for hikers may be available in Europe, but it is something new in Northeast Ohio, Rice said.
The Cuyahoga Valley park is interested in programs that help get people outdoors and into the 33,000-acre federal park, spokeswoman Pamela Barnes said.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.