As part of the Regent Street and south campus neighborhood's eight-month makeover, members of the community shared their visions for the community in a public meeting Thursday evening at Neighborhood House Community Center.

This was the first of five large-scale public meetings to receive input from the public on the renovations that will take place between now and August.

Instead of the usual public debate structure, attendees of Thursday's meeting divided into four groups that rotated among four separate stations addressing different aspects of the plan.

Each of the stations addressed issues such as business mix and land use, urban design, quality of life, and traffic and parking.

However, organizers said they had hoped more people would participate.

"I was expecting more of a turnout," said Bill Fruhling, the principal planner for the Department of Planning and Community and Economic Development. "But it's nice in terms of representation — we didn't get just one group here."

While they rotated among the stations, participants were asked to fill out a brief survey regarding the station's specific issue and were given an opportunity to voice both their concerns about and hopes for the neighborhood.

"This area has a lot of potential given its location, but it's not had much attention paid to it," Fruhling said. "So I think this is a really exciting project because of the opportunity to really guide and shape the future of this neighborhood."

According to Fruhling, the steering committee — a group consisting of neighborhood representatives, business owners, students, medical institution representatives and alders — will use the results of these public meetings to ultimately prepare a draft of a plan for the neighborhood.

The plan will then be guided through the city approval process.

"This is a very intensive process in terms of public participation," said Ald. Austin King, District 8, a member of the steering committee. The district King represents covers most of the Regent Street neighborhood.

Ald. Robbie Webber, District 5, an alternate on the steering committee, said such a comprehensive approach would make the redevelopment of the area a much smoother process.

"When there's a plan, it's much easier for people who are living there to put forth their ideas of what they want, and also for people who own property because they have an idea of what's acceptable and what's not," Webber said.

According to King, the next public meeting will not be held until near the end of the school year, since the steering committee has a lot of work to do before then.