The public is invited to weigh in on a streetscaping plan that may determine the future look of downtown Washington.

Thursday, the City of Washington and Washington Harbor District Alliance are hosting open house to preview and invite comment on a preliminary streetscape plan created by LandDesign, a collaborative group of landscape architects, civil engineers, planners and urban designers enlisted to create a wayfinding design for Washington. The floating event will take place in the Council Chambers, in the City of Washington Municipal Building, and those interested can drop by between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

“We’d love for anyone who’s interested to come and review and give input,” said Beth Byrd, WHDA executive director. “This is wide open for the community and we’d love to have them participate.”

The open house and preliminary streetscape plan is the result of a series of work sessions with downtown Washington stakeholders — merchants, restaurant owners, property owners, city board members, city employees among them — who shared their insight about what they’d like to see in the future.

“Those meetings, we felt were very successful. We had over 50 people attend throughout the day,” Byrd said. “LandDesign took notes off all those meetings, and we’ve toured the town itself, and now they’ve come back with their recommendations.”

The project isn’t one that was plucked from thin air — it’s based on a future city utilities project that already would change downtown’s landscape.

“The impetus of all of this is the city has an interest in burying utilities underground and therefore the street would be torn up anyway,” Byrd said.

The idea is that after utilities construction is through, the new streetscape plan could be implemented, provided it has the funding.

“There is no funding for project right now, but it’s hard to get funding without a plan. This is the plan,” Byrd said.

She said she and others have visited with officials in other towns, like Goldsboro and Statesville, both of which have implemented and found funding for similar projects.

“We’re trying to get all the information we can on what can be done and, of course, on what the local community would like to see,” Byrd said. “It’s a long process, obviously, to find that type of funding.”

The City of Washington Municipal Building is located at 102 E. Second St., Washington.