Less than a month after hosting, and perhaps wowing, Super Bowl crowds with raucous parties, new culinary hot spots and a dazzling lazy river shaped like the state of Texas, downtown boosters are working hard to chart an even bolder course for the next 20 years.

"In my mind, the question that starts to loom is what comes after?" said Bob Eury, executive director of the Houston Downtown Management District, which announced Monday the launch of a long-term plan to address such concepts as urban development and design, livability, and transportation in and around the city center.

The $1.05 million Plan Downtown project will offer recommendations for developing and designing changes to make the city stronger, the district said. It represents the latest effort to encourage a downtown that thrives after office hours.

"You've got to have a reason for them to stay," said Michael Shapiro, a downtown business owner who has seen plans come and go.

In recent years, municipal leaders and private developers have pumped billions of dollars into office towers, luxury hotels and high-priced apartment buildings as part of a decades-long slog to transform downtown into a formidable center of commerce and urban living.

Recent improvements have been an undeniable positive step, but much work remains in a city core that has yet to attract a major grocery store and offer enough entertainment and shopping to keep visitors and residents sticking around after 5 p.m. and coming back on weekends.

Eury said downtown has made tremendous progress since its last comprehensive plan in 2004, but there's a lot of work to do.

"We felt like it was appropriate to engage everyone and say what's the next chapter?" he said.

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Yet too much say over how downtown develops is troubling to Charles M. Lusk III, whose family owns the historic Lancaster Hotel.

While Lusk is encouraged by the thousands of new residential units being added to the central business district - largely a result of financial incentives to developers, he adds - he is concerned with the district having too much influence on where and what is built.

He cites an earlier proposal aimed at transforming Dallas Street into a retail corridor.

"To me, that's big brother dictating what really the market ought to be dictating," Lusk said. "I have a problem with that."

The new downtown plan would encourage conceptual ideas meant to drive action, the management district said.

For example, there could be ideas on ways to make street life more active, how to make downtown more friendly toward millennial workers, or offer strategies on affordable housing. There could be a series of concepts that hinge on the proposed project to rebuild Interstate 45 near downtown.

Some ideas could be implemented immediately, but Eury stressed the long-term nature of the plan.

Fate of Jones Plaza

The Plan Downtown project will be funded by the district, with some $300,000 coming from Houston First Corp., the city's promotional arm and convention center operator.

In 2015, Houston First presented a 10-year plan to give Theater District patrons more places to linger before and after attending a play, opera or symphony.

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The sweeping plan included a proposal to overhaul Jones Plaza, the elevated concrete space between Jones Hall and Bayou Place, into a more welcoming spot. It also included a long-term proposal to tear down Bayou Place, home to Hard Rock Cafe, bars and a movie theater.

Lusk said Jones Plaza remains "a horrible park."

"And it's in the middle of one of our most vibrant districts," he said.

Shapiro, owner of the Charbar inside the decades-old Duke of Hollywood Tailors off Market Square Park, said downtown hasn't been great since the 1970s, when it had major department stores and other storefronts lined the streets.

After the 1980s oil bust, "the retail business went to hell, which is why I put a bar in. It's really the only thing that makes money down here, bars and restaurants."

He said downtown needs to attract more stores throughout the area, "not in one little strip."

"You've got to have a reason for them to stay," he said. "If they're in town staying at the Icon, they might come out to lunch by us but then what are they going to do for the next six hours. They'll go to the Galleria or the Village and then they're going to finish their day there."

Eury said the plan will be separate from, but relate to the principles of, the city's larger general plan adopted in 2015.

The process of creating the vision will include a series of meetings and public workshops with such groups as existing and potential downtown residents, employees and visitors, elected officials, neighborhood leaders and service providers for the homeless. Meetings are expected to begin this spring with the plan being completed in the fall.

Targeting areas of growth

The plan will have a 17-member leadership group that will include representatives of the city of Houston, Harris County, Central Houston, the board of downtown's tax increment redevelopment zone, Buffalo Bayou Partnership and Theater District Houston, along with officials from East Downtown, Greater East End, Greater Northside and Midtown.

The final plan will be a "road map that identifies stakeholders areas of responsibility, designates a phasing strategy and pinpoints funding opportunities for projects and concepts," the district said.

"Having a thriving core is critical to Houston's success and downtown continues to be the heartbeat of the region in many ways - culturally, economically and even in terms of our civic institutions - and it's a vital part of what makes Houston such a dynamic place," Pat Walsh, director of planning and development for the city of Houston, said in a statement.

Some of the topics to be addressed include:

Attractions, hospitality and culture

Economic potential

Innovation and education

Infrastructure, mobility and transportation

Livability, connectivity and public space

Social equity

Technology

Urban planning, development and design

Asakura Robinson, a planning, urban design and landscape architecture firm with offices in Houston, will draft the plan, along with consultants from Sasaki, Traffic Engineers Inc. and HR&A Advisors.

The Downtown District was formed in 1995 to revitalize the urban core. Officials have used public funds and private resources on area improvements focusing on the city blocks bordered by U.S. 59 and Interstates 10 and 45.

It is operated under the leadership of a 30-person board and funded by downtown property owners, who are assessed 12 cents per $100 of value on their properties.