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Roundabouts on Main Street, more downtown places to live and boutique hotels were among the ideas a group of designers and architects have for downtown Conway.

After a series of public meetings to gather opinions from local stakeholders, an outside planning team presented a draft master plan for the downtown and riverfront district Friday afternoon.

Conway鈥檚 downtown plan was created five years ago, and the city鈥檚 administration believes it's time for an update 鈥� which prompted this week鈥檚 charrette to bring ideas to the city.

Conway paid an outside planning team 鈥� made up of consultants from Boudreaux Group, Arnett Muldrow & Associates, Toole Design and Mahan Rykiel Associates 鈥� $50,000 to update the plan, with the purposes of guiding further public improvements, as well as serving as a 鈥渃ontinued catalyst for private investment for the next five years,鈥� according to city officials.

鈥淲hat we heard and what we believe is that it鈥檚 all about converging here,鈥� Irene Dumas Tyson, master planner with the Boudreaux Group, said Friday. 鈥淵ou can continue to build upon your historic resources and build new architecture. It鈥檚 going to be a challenge to balance all of that, but we know you can do it because you have been doing it.鈥�

As Tyson addressed a crowd of stakeholders and city employees Friday, she complimented the city鈥檚 bounty of local businesses, decorations during the holidays and its new mural.

鈥淐onway is historical,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 got the river. In the end鈥ou want people to enjoy living here. You鈥檙e in an amazing place as a city. We鈥檙e looking forward to wrapping this up and seeing what comes [going] forward.鈥�

Some of the conflicts Tyson named included traffic, people versus cars, and historic versus new development. Tyson also added that the city could do better with signage.

Tripp Muldrow, a partner with Arnett Muldrow based in Greenville, South Carolina, called downtown a 鈥渞etail powerhouse,鈥� and added that the city could benefit from boutique hotels, a higher education center and more places for people to reside.

He also provided the following figures:

• 1 in every 12 jobs is a downtown job
• $1 of every $6 spent benefits the city
• 15 people both live and work downtown
• There are 1,632 jobs downtown

To address the traffic on Main Street, planners and designers also pitched mini roundabouts at 3rd and 4th avenues. There is currently enough space to accommodate roundabouts, and planners said these could alleviate traffic backed up onto the bridge, as well as reduce wrecks.

Allison Hardin, Conway planning and development director, said any plans for roundabouts would require funding and partnerships with nearby businesses.

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Tom McGilloway, planning director with Mahan Rykiel Associates, said the downtown area needed to be linked better.

Using Laurel Street and 5th Avenue could be an option to bring more bike traffic downtown and better link the area by creating two-way bike paths.

Lastly, ideas to extend sidewalks and create curb extensions were discussed.

Main Street, Laurel Street, Elm Street and Third Avenue were roads named as priority streets for streetscape designs.

Stakeholders help shape plan

Though the plan is not fully completed, it draws from stakeholders and the city鈥檚 survey.

鈥淲hat people are seeing today is a very rough draft from what we鈥檝e pulled these last few days,鈥� said June Wood, spokeswoman for the city of Conway. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really a way for the public to see the full landscape of what was talked about the last few days.鈥�

Two public input sessions were held this week where community members and business owners expressed how they would like to see Conway progress, including wanting a seamless connection between Conway and the riverwalk, more and better launches for boaters, and partnerships with farmers to grow necessary plants.

Community members Sadie Thomas and April O鈥橪eary shared earlier this week about convincing citizens to use environmentally-sensitive practices on their homes, advertising Conway as the Monarch City, like the butterfly, and creating a flood-friendly, environmental and non-traditional playground with outdoor kitchen, fountains, art, tree houses and splash pads.

Still another attendee suggested branding Conway as a聽Heart City USA with information and aid readily available.

In addition to stakeholders鈥� input, the city has received nearly 500 responses to its , which will remain open through next week. Both the public input and survey responses, as well as the professional backgrounds from outside consultants, were used to craft the updated plan, Wood said.

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What鈥檚 next?

Planners and architects listed a number of 2030 benchmarks to help the city going forward. Those include downtown Conway having 250 new residential units, the Lawn becoming the centerpiece of civic life, being known as a South Carolina Cultural District, and being home to a state-of-the-art higher education center.

As far as the draft plan goes, Hardin said the team will receive input from city staff. City staff will then tweak the recommendations. After another review period, the plan will be ready to go to council.

It鈥檚 possible the plan could be approved and implemented within the next few months.

鈥淥nce it鈥檚 approved, we can go forward with some first steps,鈥� Hardin said. 鈥淲e will look forward to implementing what we can as soon as we can.鈥�

Kathy Ropp contributed to this report.