Input from Greensburg residents is key to successfully updating the city’s 14-year-old comprehensive plan, city leaders said as they prepare for public sessions to begin this week.

The sessions, broken into three rounds, will give community members an opportunity to weigh in on the project and suggest any improvements needed within the city.

“This is our attempt to look at the city of Greensburg from the big picture and update our comprehensive plan,” Councilman Gregory Mertz said. “It requires two things: support from local government and support from the people. The public input process is probably the most important because we need to hear what exactly it is that’s most important.”

City officials have been working on the comprehensive plan for months, meeting with a steering committee and consultant Pittsburgh-based Environmental Planning and Design. In addition, city officials last month launched the website shapegreensburg.com to collect input and to keep the community updated on the project.

According to Mertz, initial feedback received through the site “has been good. I’ve heard some positive comments from people that are really happy that we’re doing this.”

As things stand, the plan will focus on several key elements, including blight mitigation, parks and recreation, and citywide systems.

It also will adopt a neighborhood-based approach that includes strategies for improving the quality of neighborhoods with citywide initiatives.

To help put the focus on the community, planning and steering committees involved in the project grouped the city’s 29 neighborhoods into five neighborhood planning areas — west, east, north, central and north central. Meetings will be scheduled in each of the planning areas over the course of the three rounds, which will have different themes.

The first round kicks off Saturday. Residents will be asked to identify things they like about neighborhoods and what they think needs to be improved.

The schedule for the first round:

West: 11 a.m. Saturday at Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department Hose Company 6, 542 W. Otterman St. East: 1 p.m. Saturday at Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department Hose Company 7, 625 E. Pittsburgh St. North: 3 p.m. Saturday at Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department Hose Company 1, 6 McLaughlin Drive Central: 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Westmoreland Bar Association, 100 N. Maple Ave. North Central: 6 p.m. Wednesday at Westmoreland Museum of American Art, 221 N. Main St.

The second round will begin in April with a focus on what will make the city’s neighborhoods better.

Dates for those sessions:

North: 11 a.m. April 2 at Nevin Arena, 520 New Alexandria Road West: 1 p.m. April 2 at Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department Hose Company 6 Central: 3 p.m. April 2 at the Westmoreland Bar Association East: 6 p.m. April 5 at Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department Hose Company 7 North Central: 6 p.m. April 6 at Westmoreland Museum of American Art

Finally, the third round of public input sessions will focus on what can be done now to make improvements to the city’s neighborhoods.

That schedule includes:

East: 6 p.m. May 10 at Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department Hose Company 7 West: 6 p.m. May 11. A location has not been confirmed. Central: 11 a.m. May 14 at Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department Hose Company 2, 137 N. Pennsylvania Ave. North: 1 p.m. May 14 at Nevin Arena North Central: 3 p.m. May 14 at Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department Hose Company 2

Feedback collected during the sessions will feed future workshops and will be included in the updated comprehensive plan.

“Our goal is to listen to as many people as possible,” Michael Norcini, plan coordinator who is working with the steering committee and Environmental Planning and Design, said in a news release. “Greensburg has strong, vibrant neighborhoods, so it made sense to start shaping a plan that will service our entire city at the grass roots.”

Further information on the comprehensive plan can be found on shapegreensburg.com.

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