FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio -- The future of Lorain Road is the focus of a nine-month process that will culminate with planning and urban design firm MKSK providing recommendations related to transportation, development and place-making for the busy thoroughfare.

The endeavor includes the Columbus-based company facilitating three Lorain Road corridor study public workshops. The first takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 18) in the Gemini Center's Oak Room.

Mayor Eileen Ann Patton said the revitalization is important in creating the city's future.

"The Lorain Road public workshop will help shape the look and feel of Lorain Road for the next decade," Patton said.

"Much like an old-fashioned town hall meeting, we're asking residents and businesses to come and offer ideas and comments, and to participate in our activity stations to help establish a vision for this major business corridor in our city," she said.

Fairview Park Director of Public Service and Development Shawn Leininger said the plan at the upcoming meeting is for MKSK to introduce the project scope and team, as well as review the schedule process and summarize previous Lorain Road work.

The Lorain Road revitalization effort is funded by a previously awarded $80,000 Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) Transportation for Livable Communities (TLCI) grant.

"We did the EPA Sustainable Communities Planning and Infill Development Study workshop last year, so we're going to build off that," Leininger said.

"We'll use that input and background information we have to start putting together concepts and ideas for Lorain Road. Then, we'll bring that back to the community in another public workshop," Leininger said.

While the busy Lorain Road -- which is four miles in length and runs from Kamm's Corner to North Olmsted -- boasts roughly 10,000 cars a day, the upcoming study is looking at more than transportation.

Leininger said other topics MKSK will explore include economic development, business activity and housing. There's also place-making along the corridor, which the Sustainable Communities Planning recommended identifying and creating Fairview Park's downtown area.

"We're going to talk about how do we create that place and sense of community along Lorain Road," Leininger said. "We just want to create that sense of, this is Fairview Park. This is the core of the community.

"So after nine months, we're going to have a detailed plan outlining how we revitalize Lorain Road with specific action steps to accomplish our goals and objectives."