City of Akron Announces Landmark Agreement with WM to Close Fountain Street Waste Transfer Station and Build Modern Replacement on E. Archwood Avenue

The City of Akron today announced a major milestone in the long‑awaited closure and replacement of the Fountain Street waste transfer station. A new agreement between the City and WM (formerly Waste Management), contains development requirements, community benefits, and service agreement details. It formalizes the plan to permanently close the aging Fountain Street waste transfer station in Middlebury and construct a modern replacement facility on East Archwood Avenue in East Akron. It also establishes a range of community-informed terms for the development project and enables long-term stability of rates through a 25-year service agreement.  

View the development agreement here. View development agreement exhibits here. View FAQs here.  

For decades, the Fountain Street facility, owned by WM and located just 60 feet from the nearest home, has been a burden and source of concern for nearby residents. Multiple administrations have attempted to resolve these challenges with limited progress. Today’s announcement represents a generational breakthrough for Akron. 

“This agreement reflects our commitment to delivering a solution that improves quality of life while modernizing essential services,” said Akron Mayor Shammas Malik.  

Community Priorities 

City staff have been engaged with community members since early 2024 when Mayor Malik identified the Fountain Street waste transfer station as an immediate priority. Conditional use approval for the project was challenged by virtue of an administrative appeal lawsuit filed in late 2024, which disrupted advancement of the development and limited the City’s public engagement efforts. However, in late 2025, the City successfully helped broker a multi-party settlement that resolved the litigation and upheld the City’s granting of the conditional use variance for the E. Archwood location. City staff was then able to prioritize the creation of community-informed terms for an agreement with WM.  

City staff secured philanthropic resources to bring in an urban planning firm to add capacity and expertise to what has been a first-of-its-kind process in Akron. Simultaneously, City staff undertook a concentrated period of engagement from December 2025 to March 2026 to more explicitly track and measure community priorities and concerns related to the closure and replacement of the Fountain Street transfer station with a new modern facility, focused on community members and leaders in Middlebury and East Akron. Feedback from input gathering exercises, community meetings, surveys, and stakeholder interviews directly shaped the terms of the agreement with WM.  

Key community-driven components now formalized in the WM agreement include: 

• New streams of community investment, including:

  • A $1 million charitable contribution(over 10 years) from WM to Akron Community Foundation or other similar third-party foundation for a community improvement fund, with a resident-led board, that will serve a mapped area of Middlebury and East Akron.  

  • A future pathway for a portion of WM’s property tax revenue to be reallocated for public improvements benefitting the City and affected areas, if approved by City Council, the County, and the State.

• A clear, time-bound commitment to decommission the Fountain Street waste transfer stationwithin 90 days of the new E. Archwood Avenue facility becoming operational. 

• Decommissioning requirements for Fountain Street that address leachate tank removal, pest control, and security measures for nuisance mitigation.

• A deed restrictionprohibiting waste transfer operations and a range of other waste-related operations at Fountain Street in future. 

• Rezoning the parcel to commercial, simplifying the zoning and preventing industrial and residential uses in future.

• Defined routes that large trucks must takefrom the E. Archwood facility to the highway to limit neighborhood impacts. 

• Compliance with fugitive dust and particulate matter standards (with annual reporting on mitigations).

• A formal public complaint processfor the new facility. 

• An annual public reporton WM’s commitments and operations, with corresponding presentation to City Council and community stakeholders. 

• Youth engagement partnerships with Akron Public Schoolsand Youth Success Summit. 

• Commitments to prioritize local outreachfor any future positions at the E. Archwood facility as well as to utilize local qualified small business enterprises.  

• Annual community cleanup daysin Middlebury and East Akron. 

A Transformative Step toward a Generational Investment 

The agreement marks the culmination of several critical steps already completed, including the conditional use approval for the new E. Archwood facility, the resolution of the administrative appeal lawsuit, and engagement efforts to surface community priorities and concerns. Today, the agreement has been introduced to Akron City Council, representing the next major step toward implementation. 

Closing the aging Fountain Street transfer station and replacing it with a modern facility represents one of the most significant improvements for Akron in decades. Doing so while embedding the community’s priorities and concerns in the agreement terms that guide the development project is a first for the City. 

“This unique project has been about listening to residents, honoring their experiences, and ensuring they see the benefit of this much-needed private capital project,” said Director of Sustainability and Resiliency Casey Shevlin. “We appreciate the time community members have given to engagement on this matter and hope they see themselves reflected in the terms of the agreement with WM.”