Pensacola leaders don't just want a beautiful park, they want beautiful neighborhoods.

Pensacola is looking to engage the community in new ways to help write the first-ever equitable development framework plan that will shape the redesign of Hollice T. Williams Park by hosting a two-day event called "Party in the Park."

Rachel Bennett, an urban design planner for the Pensacola Community Redevelopment Agency, told the News Journal that the event aims to bring as many people together as possible to learn about the plan and get their feedback and ideas for it.

"This is the first (equitable development framework plan) that we've ever done in this city for a major infrastructure project, and we are approaching this project differently than we have traditionally," Bennett said.

The city is working with a tight timeline to meet the deadlines from the $25 million Rebuild Florida Infrastructure Repair program that is funding the project, according to Bennett. The timeline has led to some nearby residents expressing skepticism over the project.

"We're not necessarily working at the speed of trust that I think we would have preferred to work on, and I completely understand their skepticism," Bennett said.

The Hollice T. Williams Park project helps address flooding in downtown Pensacola but also looks to reconnect and restore vibrancy to the historically Black and working-class neighborhoods that were split apart by the construction of Interstate 110 in the 1970s. The area has been dubbed the "lost neighborhood" that was gutted with the construction of the I-110 overpass.

A preliminary park design was already in place, funded through the RESTORE Act, but when Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves attended the Mayors' Institute on City Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design last year, he realized that without a framework plan in place that would look at a half-mile radius around the park, the goal of having the park reconnect the communities separated by the construction of I-110 would fail.

Meanwhile, the city won a $25 million grant to build the stormwater infrastructure for the new park, but the grant has a three-year deadline to commit the funds.

Reeves said in May that the No. 1 piece of feedback he received on the project while in Boston from other mayors and city design experts was that other cities had done similar things and ended up with a park that still divided the neighborhoods they were meant to connect.

"They built this nice, fancy park, but they didn't do anything in the neighborhood. So it lost its identity. It lost its way," Reeves said. "So the pitch of doing Hollice T. Williams is to beautify and reconnect a lost neighborhood. Well, you can't do that by merely putting a park in."

Reeves moved the city to commence a park redesign, which includes creating an equitable development framework plan.

The equitable development framework plan will study the park and a half-mile on either side to make recommendations to boost the park's chance of becoming valued place by the community who already lives in the area.

Bennett said it's too early to know what those recommendations will be, but they could be park designs, city policies, changes to zoning, or a new zoning overlay in the area.

"At this moment, I can't tell you because we're kind of questioning those things ourselves," Bennett said.

At the heart of the plan is what the community values, which is why the city is interested in getting as much input as possible.

The "Party in the Park" event is aimed to draw people in.

On Friday there will be events at the Blake Doyle Skatepark in the heart of the Hollice T. Williams Park from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

There will be a 5.5-mile "slow ride" around the project area, and in the skatepark, a SKATE competition will be held sponsored by Bike Pensacola, Upward Intuition and Brown Bagger. The first 50 people to take a survey for the framework plan will also get a free meal from food trucks at the event.

On Saturday, there will be a "bash under the freeway" at the Cecil T. Hunter Pool. The event will include raffle prizes, a DJ, performances, a vendor village, and food trucks sponsored by East Kings Corner Café and 1216 North. The first 50 people to take the survey will receive free access to the pool during the event, as well as a meal ticket for the food trucks.

"This is us trying to do something different and also do something right by the community," Bennett said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Hollice T. Williams park and greenway redesign input underway