FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) -- The city of Fayetteville is holding public input meetings to gauge public support for the future of the Highway 71B corridor.
The public workshops kicked off Wednesday (Sept. 12) and are expected to continue into 2019.
During those meetings, residents will be able to speak with city planners and offer suggestions for what they would like to see along the road, stretching from South School Avenue to North College Avenue near Lake Fayetteville.
Andrew Garner, the city planner, said a planning is too important to leave it up to the professionals.
"Citizens [who] engage, and drive up and down that corridor, walk along it or bicycle along it, they know all the ins and outs of it, so that's what we're trying to get from everybody," Garner said.
A second public workshop will be held at the Arkansas Research and Technology Park, Thursday (Sept. 13) at 5 p.m.
Additional public input meetings will be scheduled in the future, and an online survey will also allow people to have an input.
A final plan for the future of the 71B corridor is expected to be presented before the city council next summer.
Celeste Hoskins, a business owner and resident of Fayetteville, said she had a few suggestions while attending the meeting Wednesday night.
"I would like to see some changes," Hoskins said. "I feel like parts of 71B, 71 Business, are dying, and as a business owner, it's obviously not in the city's best interest, or my best interest."
She appreciated that not only her opinion but the opinion of others were being taken into account.
"[Fayetteville has] always asked, for as long as I've lived here, and I think that's one of the things that's appealing about Fayetteville," Hoskins said. "No matter how big we get, we still try to come back to those in the community."