City commissioners and a group of outside experts want to hear what Lawrence residents hope their community looks like in the coming decades.

Six members of a special team compiled by the American Institute of Architects will be in Lawrence from Wednesday to Friday to study ways to make Lawrence more sustainable.

“I really hope it is the start of our community vision process,” said City Commissioner Boog Highberger, who led the efforts to bring the team to Lawrence. “We’re wanting to look at how we can do thing in a way that we can keep doing them and not mess up things for our children and grandchildren.”

The group will focus on three broad topics: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and social sustainability.

Members of the group plan a series of meetings to gather ideas. The largest will be a town hall meeting from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall.

The group is encouraging people to attend the meeting and share their thoughts on Lawrence’s future.

Other meetings include:

¢ 1:30 p.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday at the Eldridge Hotel, 701 Mass. Group members will break into subgroups to discuss issues related to development and housing, government and infrastructure, culture and recreation, and economy and retail.

¢ 8 a.m.-noon Thursday at the Eldridge Hotel. The group will have a second session for people who were unable to attend Wednesday’s meeting.

¢ 3:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H. The group will make a public presentation announcing its preliminary findings about the community.

A final report should to be delivered to the City Commission by the end of the year, said Lisa Patterson, communications coordinator for the city.

The group is coming to the city as part of the Sustainable Design Assessment Team project, which selects a handful of cities each year to study. The group is not charging the city for its services, only its basic expenses.