LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A vision for the city of Little Rock's future is coming into focus.
And city leaders want residents to help them sharpen that focus even more as the downtown master plan moves into the third phase.
Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said he has a lot of goals for the downtown area but doesn't want to make changes without first hearing from the community.
"We never want to do anything to the community," Scott said. "We always want to do things with the community."
Scott, the Downtown Little Rock Partnership and Sasaki, a design firm, are getting feedback as they progress with the master plan.
"Now, we are really focusing on the nuts and bolts of it," Scott said. "We want to kind of give some more information on what we've heard, what we learned [and] what we want to consider pursuing."
Additionally, Scott said some of the focuses include the Interstate 30 crossing project, adding 18 acres of green space and improving connectivity across downtown.
"What you'll see a lot within this plan is quality of place initiatives," Scott said. "What do we do for the greater entertainment in downtown Little Rock? What do we do for permanent and affordable housing... but also workforce housing?"
For Kathy Well, a Little Rock resident, that's one of the most important things.
"The affordable housing component is very dear to our heart," Wells said. "We need much more of it. We're in crisis everywhere."
Wells is the president of the Coalition of Little Rock Neighborhoods and wanted to make sure her voice was heard at Tuesday afternoon's workshop.
"I'm here, very vocally, to insist they listen to us," Wells said. "I'm very pleased at what I'm hearing so far."
Wells said she appreciates the emphasis on public safety.
"We are safety advocates," Wells said.
Scott said the ultimate goal of the downtown master plan is to improve on what Little Rock already has.
"We want to have more restaurants," Scott said. "We want to have more lounges [and] more experiences in downtown Little Rock to get people here because they're already here... We think it could be a whole lot more, and since we're a leading city in the south, we must have a leading downtown."
Scott expects the planning process to end in June, and then they will get the recommendations from the design firm and then it'll be time for them to figure out how to fund the project.
There are two more public input meetings on Feb. 21. The first is at noon in the Downtown Little Rock Partnership office, and the second is at 6 p.m. on the Philander Smith University campus.