It’s great to see so many local residents becoming engaged in the planning process for the proposed Ninth Street Corridor project.

Two public workshops each drew about 75 people to New York School last week to share ideas with the project’s design team. The participants broke into small groups to help identify special aspects of the East Lawrence neighborhood and how the corridor project could enhance the seven-block portion of Ninth Street just east of downtown.

This project has spurred a certain amount of concern among East Lawrence residents and businesses, some of whom had indicated they didn’t feel their voices were being heard. The workshops provided a good opportunity for East Lawrence, as well as other city and business representatives, to work together and hopefully find some common ground on how this project should move forward.

East Lawrence residents had a chance to share some special stories about their neighborhood, and at least one told the Journal-World she enjoyed the experience and planned to attend more meetings.

We hope she isn’t alone. The full schedule for public presentations and meetings of the Citizen Advisory Committee that will guide this process is available on the city of Lawrence website. Another public workshop is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 20 and the next advisory committee meeting will be at 7 p.m. April 22, both at New York School. Planners hope to present a “complete street document” to the public in August.

This project is something that should interest not only East Lawrence residents and local art advocates, but everyone in the community. It’s likely the plans will include a sizable public investment for infrastructure improvements and it will have a significant impact on downtown and the developing Warehouse Arts District.

Now, in the early stages of planning, is the time for anyone who cares about this project to get involved and share their thoughts. It’s good to see sizable groups already doing that, but there’s always room for a few more good ideas.