FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — A week of community meetings on improvement of southeast Fort Wayne wrapped up Thursday evening.

Residents have been encouraged to ask questions and work with city leaders on coming up with ideas to create a five-year strategy plan. A consultant has been gathering those ideas in hopes of finding out what will generate economic growth for the southeast side.

“Having a growing and vibrant southeast Fort Wayne is critical to the current and future success of our community,” said Mayor Tom Henry. “Collectively, we’ve made positive strides, but we recognize that more needs to be done to ensure residents and neighborhoods have access to grocery stores, restaurants, and additional retail options to enhance the overall quality of life.”

Everything we’ve developed in this presentation was developed in the past four days. The ink is very wet. There’s a lot of room to weigh in on what you like, what you don’t like, what you think works and what you think doesn’t work.

Joe Nickol, YARD & Company, Cincinnati

Once the ideas are filtered, the Southeast Area partnership will create options for the city’s overall southeast plan.