It’s still early in the planning process, so details still are somewhat scarce, but officials said residents have expressed a desire for easier access to bike paths and walking areas, along with more green space in the corridor.

The series will take a closer examination of three areas in the corridor: the Sparrow Hospital neighborhood, the Frandor Shopping Center area and Meridian Center near Okemos.

The first event is 6 p.m. Tuesday at Allen Market Place, 1619 E, Kalamazoo St., Lansing, and focuses on the neighborhood surrounding Sparrow Hospital.

Tri-County Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Susan Pigg said this is the second series of public meetings on the corridor this year, the first of which began in May.

Pigg said that the first series of public meetings brought upwards of 600 participants through public meetings and online forums.

“Through all of that, we came up with a vision for the future of the corridor,” she said. “People said that we didn’t want a cookie-cutter look across the board. They wanted the look to reflect the uniqueness of the neighborhoods.”

Pigg said the commission asked participants what areas they would want to focus on in a future planning session. The three areas that the commission plans to address — the area by Sparrow Hospital, the Meridian Center area, and the area by Frandor Shopping Center — were the most common ones mentioned.

“These charrettes will result in clear ideas of what the corridor should look like and how it will function,” she said.

Pigg said the charrettes also will do a lot of strengthening of relations with all the municipalities that use the corridor.

East Lansing officials also plan to attend parts of the week-long public meeting session. Planning, Building and Development Director Tim Dempsey said this stretch of road is important to everyone in the region.

“The effort to connect the capital with Meridian Mall benefits East Lansing because we are in the center of that area,” he said. “From a standpoint of trying to enhance the corridor, this effort bridges the gap between our communities. If we can have a more cohesive plan for what’s one of the busiest thoroughfares in the region, I think it makes a lot of sense for us to be involved.”

Dempsey said he hopes the public meetings have a high volume of public input and that people broaden their thinking about what the areas could be in terms of development.

“A lot of times I think we settle for what is there now, and I think these charrettes really give us an opportunity to imagine something that is much improved,” Dempsey said.

East Lansing City Manager George Lahanas said the city is supportive of the Tri-County Planning Commission’s efforts to improve the corridor, but also indicated the community has a lot on its plate at the moment with the Park District project and updating various components of the city’s Comprehensive Plan.

“They aren’t specifically planning for components in East Lansing,” Lahanas said. “We’re pretty focused at this exact point on our own Comprehensive Plan.”