Some people want East Street to be more like Market Street but while maintaining a distinct feel that’s separate from other parts of downtown, Jonathan Bydlak said as he presented his group’s ideas.

“This area is not Market Street,” he said.

A second meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Municipal Annex at 140 W. Patrick St. will look to bring together the ideas from the various groups, said Joe Adkins, deputy director for planning.

Outside the main room, people could participate in a visual preference exercise, looking at a wall of pictures of various urban environments and putting green dots on images they liked and red dots on what they didn’t like.

The area needs better pedestrian access, said Susan Ledford, who lives in the Monocacy Meadows neighborhood, as she pondered the pictures on the wall.

“The sidewalks on East Street are nonexistent from about Fifth Street north,” Ledford said.

Ledford, a retired postal employee, said she lives where she does because it’s within walking distance of almost everything she needs.

Vanessa McKinney, who lives on East Second Street, said she also wants the area to be more walkable and bikeable, as well as more outdoor spaces for people to gather.

McKinney said she would also like to see a grocery store downtown.

One main focus of the redesign project will be making the corridor safer and comfortable for bikers and pedestrians by adding or widening sidewalks, putting in more crosswalks, and adding shared use paths.

The plan will also provide opportunities for walkers and hikers who are looking to do more than just get around their individual neighborhoods.

Included in the long-term vision for the redesign of East Street will also be a pedestrian and bicycle trail stretching from near the MARC station near downtown, over the interchange of U.S. 15 and Md. 26 to just past the Clemson Corner shopping center.

That trail will link up with an asphalt trail running 1.79 miles along the right of way for the Walkersville Southern Railroad to the Fountain Rock Nature Center near Walkersville, and ultimately out to Heritage Farm Park in Walkersville.

Saturday’s event was a chance to be involved at the beginning of an effort to improve part of the city, Ledford said.

Getting business and residents’ input will help the city grow the way residents want it to, she said.

“This seemed very positive,” she said.

Planners would start to assemble the common themes from what they heard Saturday to inform their future work, said Geoffrey Ferrell, an urbanist with Geoffrey Ferrell Associates in Washington, D.C., who is working as a sub-consultant on the redesign project.

The East Street area will be Frederick’s introduction to a form-based code, with an emphasis on elements such as moving buildings closer to the street, creating inviting areas for pedestrians, and providing connections between neighborhoods in a zoning process that focuses on creating a particular type of place or environment rather than how a property is used.

Form-based code controls the things that many residents care about, such as the height and character of buildings, locations for trees, and walkability, he said.

They’ll be taking cues from Saturday’s session as they create a code that can match people’s visions for the area, he said.