The city is seeking more input from residents in the Ala Moana-Sheridan area to help direct future development in the historic neighborhood.

The $95,000 Ala Moana-Sheridan Community Plan, which covers the dense residential and commercial districts from Ala Moana Center to King Street and from Kalakaua Avenue to the Neal Blaisdell Center, will provide a guideline for city planners on traffic patterns, pedestrian safety, open space and zoning.

"It's a rather diverse neighborhood," said John Whalen of consulting company Plan Pacific Inc. "It's a community-based plan, focusing on what residents and businesses in the area would like to see. It helps the city decide where to make investments in public improvements and also where (zoning) code changes may be warranted."

The city Department of Planning and Permitting will use the plan as a guide for changes that would help create a more livable urban neighborhood. The area is viewed as having six distinct neighborhoods (see map).

"This area has a high percentage of people walking, using public transit," Whalen said. "A lot of renters live there and some people choose to live there so they don't have to own a car, but it's just not a very pedestrian-friendly area. It was designed for vehicular traffic."

This is the second community meeting to develop the plan. Plan Pacific will present preliminary concepts and proposals tonight at a workshop at Makiki Christian Church. The final plan is expected by the end of the year.

"We are going to be presenting proposals that tip the scales a little more toward pedestrians and bicyclists," Whalen said.

Dyane Sih's grandparents helped develop the Sheridan area from swamp land to its first homes in the early part of the 20th century. Her grandparents raised ducks before the swamp was filled and then grew fig trees and bananas.

"The area was primarily Asian and agriculture — (my) parents remember rice fields and water buffalo all the way to Kaheka," Sih said.

The Sheridan area has many old bungalow-style homes built in the 1920s and 1930s that Sih would like to see preserved rather then torn down for more condominium towers.

John Breinich, chairman of the Ala Moana/Kaka'ako Neighborhood Board, said the area needs an overall planning review.

"Sheridan is an old community," Breinich said. "It has been an area that has been kind of forgotten. All the development goes on around it and it is getting kind of squeezed.

"Having some focus on this particular area and what its needs are and the future, I think, is good."

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com.