Final round of public consultations on the master plan for downtown Little Rock

Little Rock, Arkansas – Although Little Rock has been working to improve its downtown for some time, the city made progress on Tuesday night.

Before the public release of the draft master plan in May, the last round of public input meetings is currently taking place.

Before Wednesday, they had already met twice. The initiative was launched at the first one, and the purpose of the second was to learn more about the community’s vision for downtown. Before the presentation of the final plan, Wednesday night’s meeting was intended to be used to concentrate on specific topics and objectives.

Every discussion helps the planners better understand what the public wants to see, such as more bike lanes and sidewalks, better housing alternatives for downtown residents, and a better connection between downtown and the river.

According to Downtown Little Rock Partnership executive director Gabe Holmstrom, participating in these gatherings provides residents a say in making changes to their neighborhoods.

“This is Little Rock, we’re the capital of our state, this is the capital city, this is the downtown, we are the front porch of Arkansas when people fly in, this is what they see,” Holmstrom said.

According to Daniel Church, an associate planner with Sasaki, the firm working on the master plan, they refine various concepts and ideas at each meeting to build the ideal blueprint for the city.

“We’ve got things related to building neighborhoods, to improving open spaces, thinking about transportation and mobility, as well as thinking about enhancing culture and celebrating what makes downtown special,” Church said.

In addition to meetings open to the public, there are focus groups and steering committee sessions. They want to work on a draft for the next few months and present it to everyone in May.

The current series of public meetings is the last one. There are two further opportunities on Wednesday to view the concepts the planners developed based on the earlier input.

The Downtown Little Rock Partnership Office will host a meeting on February 21 from 12 to 1 p.m., and the Kendall Health and Science Center’s Philander Smith University Elder’s Room will host the final meeting from 6 to 7 p.m. To give locals a simpler option to get their opinions heard, there is also an online survey.