The city of Urbana will hold a review session in regard to the Lincoln-Busey Corridor Wednesday which will serve as a time for the residents of the area to view the design guidelines for the new construction in the corridor.

“We have a draft version of design guidelines for the Lincoln-Busey Corridor,” Rebecca Bird, a planning associate for the city, said. “They’re design guidelines to review new construction in that corridor, their intent is to help ensure the future growth in the Lincoln-Busey Corridor is compatible with the existing built environment. It’s also to aid in the visual transition from the larger-scale buildings of the University to the west and the single-family homes of Urbana to the east.”

Bird said the architecture of the buildings will be designed to have them fit in and not standout against the size of the adjacent buildings.

“If you have a large apartment building that is just a square or a rectangle, that’s going to look a lot larger than even if it’s the same size as a building that one piece kind of stepped back, bay windows and architectural details,” she sad. “All of those things help to make (a building that is to our liking), instead of one big plane, that would look very large compared to a single-family house, if you divide the front facade into smaller portions, it’s going to help it fit into the neighborhood.”

Bird stressed that the meeting is a forum for the community to establish their own input on the design guidelines.

“We really want input from property owners and the people that will be affected by it,” Bird said. “We want to explain what the guidelines are for and what types of projects will need to be reviewed using the guidelines, and then really have public input on how to improve them before we go forward for official review by the planning commission and the city council.”

The session will start at 5:30 p.m. and take place in the Council Chambers at the City Building at 400 S. Vine Street in Urbana.