The first in a series of meetings concerning the master streetscape plan for downtown Washington is set for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Grace Martin Harwell Senior Center in the Peterson Building, 310 W Main St.

Other meetings seeking pubic input are planned and will be announced when details about times, dates and locations are completed. LandDesign employees will help facilitate the meetings.

“What the (LandDesign) guys are going to do is meet with some of the stakeholders throughout the city,” according to John Rodman, the city’s director of community and cultural resources.

Rodman advised the Planning Board, during its June 23 meeting, of the upcoming development of the streetscape master plan.

“The city’s been talking sometime about putting its utilities downtown underground. That is in the plan to do that. City Council awarded the contract to a company called LandDesign. They’re the ones that redid our waterfront plan as far as Festival Park, the lighthouse (dockmaster’s station). So, what we did is we contracted with LandDesign to come up with a master streetscape plan so when we do start putting the utilities underground and start putting things back, we know how we want to put things back, whether it’s new planters, streetlights or what we want to do,” Rodman told the board.

Rodman said it might be a year to two before the master plan is completed.

“We want to make sure we have that plan in place so when we do start we’ll be ready to go,” he said.

“One of the reasons that we chose LandDesign is because it could be consistent with what they’ve already done on the waterfront,” Rodman said.

“They’re familiar with us,” said board Chairman John B. Tate III.

Washington’s City Council, during its May 11 meeting, set the spending limit on the plan’s cost at $29,600. The city had asked LandDesign to submit a proposal to provide a master plan that would renew streetscape components in the downtown area associated with the possible upgrade of utilities in that area.

“By awarding the project to Land Design, the City saw this as an opportunity to tie previous improvements to the successful waterfront enhancement projects, to help bolster the long-term success of Downtown merchants, and to build on the overall brand,” reads a memorandum from John Rodman, the city’s community and cultural resources director, to the mayor and City Council.

The city is providing $25,000 for the plan, with the Washington Harbor District Alliance providing $4,600 for the plan.

The plan, under the scope of services agreement between the city and Land Design, would cover the area along Main Street between north-south Bridge Street and north-south Bonner Street and from north-south Market Street between N.C. Highway 32 (Third Street) and the waterfront.

The streetscape plan would outline aesthetic and infrastructure changes for the downtown/waterfront area. It would include, but not be limited to, the following items:

• Promote downtown as the city’s central business district.
• Develop a vehicle/pedestrian traffic circulation plan that connects people with various locations within the downtown/waterfront area.

• Establish a vision and reinvestment strategy that brands Washington’s downtown as a “central business district on the river.”

The city is requiring LandDesign to conduct an open house at which the public may review any proposals and comment on them.

LandDesign has produced similar plans for Hickory and Statesville.