LEWISTON – City leaders have a lot to think about after three public meetings on the future of Lewiston’s poorest area.

Thursday’s meeting between the city and downtown residents helped clear up a lot of misconceptions about plans to revitalize the area surrounding Kennedy Park, according to City Administrator Jim Bennett.

“Our goal has been to deal with, and allay, some of the fears that people have had,” Bennett said. “They’ve always felt that we had the construction crews right around the corner, but we don’t.”

The next step will be a planning seminar, tentatively set for Jan. 8. City officials and neighbors will discuss what they want to see develop in the area then, Bennett said.

“But this is not simple, like just building a playground,” Bennett said. “We have a lot of ideas that have been discussed, and we need to consider them before we know what we’re going to consider in January.”

Jake Grindle, a community organizer for the Maine People’s Alliance and The Visible Community, said residents are cautiously optimistic after Thursday’s meeting.

“It was a great step, for residents to use their voices, and be able to say what they want for their community,” Grindle said. “Now we need to make sure the city continues taking them into account.”

City officials announced the Heritage Initiative this summer. It was designed to clean up the poorest section of the downtown, build new housing projects along Blake, Birch and Maple streets, and add new downtown office buildings over the next 10 years.

The most controversial part was a proposed $4.5 million boulevard that would run from Lincoln to Lisbon streets, cut through the Knox and Birch neighborhoods, and end at Bates Street.

“That made a lot of people nervous, because it would go through a lot of apartment buildings down there,” Grindle said.

The boulevard was a part of the city’s long-term thinking, Bennett said.

“We always envisioned that we needed other parties, at the planning table,” Bennett said. “These issues are all beyond the scope of just the municipality. Unfortunately, there was a lot of miscommunication and people got nervous.”