GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Event pavilions. Children's play areas. A winter lodge for year-round educational and cultural events.

And additional terraces providing greater access to the Grand River for tubers, waders and anglers.

Those are some of the highlights envisioned in the River for All project, a roughly $40 million plan by the city of Grand Rapids and community partners to create six new public spaces along the Grand River between the Grand Rapids Public Museum and Ann Street.

The idea is to strengthen recreation and development opportunities along the river - and it's tied to an effort, already underway, to remove the dams along the Grand River and restore the city's namesake rapids.

"What I think this means for residents of Grand Rapids is greater connectivity, greater connectivity to some incredible natural assets that have been available for years, decades, but not always very easy to get to or be a part of," said David Marquardt, director of parks and recreation for the city of Grand Rapids.

Marquardt was one of several city officials and community members who spoke Thursday at an event at DeVos Place where conceptual plans for the River for All project were shared.

Project planners discussed community input that was gathered to create the plans, fielded questions from audience members, laid out the timeline and estimated cost for the project, and gave an update on the Grand Rapids Whitewater project.

Marquardt said work on the proposed six public spaces is not likely to begin for another five or six years, after construction in the river to remove the dams and restore the rapids is completed.

Work on the $44 million Grand Rapids Whitewater project is expected to start -- pending the approval of federal permits -- in late 2019 or spring of 2020, officials say.

"Once they're pulling off-site with their heavy construction equipment, that's when we can begin coming in and building out some of these opportunity sites," Marquardt said, referring to the six proposed public spaces.

The spaces include:

An area along the river at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. Plans include a lower trail providing seasonal access to the river's edge for habitat observation and an amphitheater near the existing river trail.

Fish Ladder Park, at 560 Front Ave. NW. Plans include picnic groves, a sloped event lawn with new trees, and new steps to the river for angler and waders.

A stretch of riverfront along North Monroe Avenue, north of I-196 and south of Sixth Street Park. Plans call for a boat launch, an event pavilion, community plaza and skate park.

The Coldbrook decommissioned water pumping station site, south of Leonard Street, near Canal Park. Additions to the site include steeped river access, a link to the existing river trail, a sculptural play area and mixed-use development.

The decommissioned water department storage yard site, near the location where Caledonia Street NE intersects with Monroe Avenue NW. Plans call for a winter lodge for year-round educational and cultural events, a log-jam inspired nature playground, lawn space along the river, and public use outdoor fire pits.

The Leonard to Ann Street trail connection, which the plan describes as a "critical missing link in the larger regional trail network along the Grand River Corridor." Additions include a public/private river-oriented plaza and a lower boardwalk river trail.

The design of the six public spaces, and the proposed amenities they would include, was led by Nicole Horst, a principal at Wenk, a Denver-based landscape architecture and planning company hired by the city to do the work.

She said her group engaged people at ArtPrize 2017 and held focus groups with dozens of others to shape the vision for the area. The new spaces will help "transform" the river and open new spaces that currently have limited accessibility, she said.

"Being able to have these public spaces and connectivity that brings you farther than just outside downtown is pretty exciting," Horst said.

Now that the renderings have been unveiled, the city will begin looking at how to fund the more than $40 million price tag the construction and renovations will carry, Marquardt said.

"This project cost is not insurmountable," he said. "State, local funding, city funding, private funding, grant funding - all of those sources together, we'll get to that endpoint."

One attendee at Thursday's event, Latesha Lipscomb, who does community engagement work for the city of Grand Rapids, asked whether the development would be created in a way that provides access for all residents, regardless of income.

"You talked about restaurants, you talked about wedding rental facilities, you talked about tubing," she said. "For a lot of people those are expensive to engage in."

City officials said they would aim to provide opportunities for people from all walks of life to participate in recreational activities through community partnerships, and they framed potential business development as an opportunity for entrepreneurs and job-seekers.

"All those activities you just mentioned are also opportunities for entrepreneurship, economic development and thinking about ways to provide jobs," said Tim Kelly, president and CEO of Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.

"If we can think big picture and start to incorporate these goals around equity and inclusion we have in the community, I think this project and this moment is the time to do that."