Visitors to Highland Station, the downtown district of Highland Township, may one day stroll down attractive sidewalks from shop to shop. They may enjoy a horse and buggy ride around town while educational kiosk signs point the way to Highland's history. Hikers and mountain bikers may flock to Highland and enjoy the extensive recreation activities in the area.

In short, a thriving and attractive community with unique qualities that draw visitors.

At last week's Highland Station Master Plan kickoff meeting about 40 residents, business people and community leaders came together to discuss their vision of Highland's future.

"I'm very pleased to see the variety of interested people here," said Jill Bahm, Highland's Downtown District Authority director.

"We have the big picture down, now we need to get focused on the details."

Plan details will involve, hopefully, the intensive involvement of the community. Last week's discussion generated some interesting ideas. One idea, "multi-model access," involves installing sidewalks, bike paths and horse trails.

Because of access to a variety of recreational areas, Highland Station has the opportunity to create a space which caters to these outdoors activities, Tad Krear of Land Design Studios said.

Krear presented the big picture with the group. Rather than putting together a dense 200-page master plan, officials will be developing a concise vision for the community known as a design statement, he said.

The Highland Station Design Statement will contain graphics and reference pictures from other communities throughout the world.

"It becomes a living, working document, written and produced by the community," Krear said.

While Land Design Studio will be doing a great deal of work on this project, Krear said, it simply won't work without the community's input and support.

Greg Presley of Presley Architecture urged creative thinking within a framework of fiscal responsibility.

"Be careful about your vision," he said. "Make sure it's rooted in what's possible according to your financial capability.

"I think we have a good fabric of historic buildings. This will be fun to figure out how this hamlet will preserve history and embrace change."

One of the ways planners establish a community is to visually cue residents and visitors with what is known as "gateways." These gateways will clearly mark Highland Station as a distinctive community. Krear called these gateways "points of transition."

Highland will be receiving sewer in the spring of 2008, Township Supervisor Triscia Pilchowski said. More plans are in the works to revamp utilities.

As part of this visioning process, Highland Township placed a moratorium on residential construction last month. The moratorium will last for six months, until October.

"The whole idea is to have the planning commission complete work on the master plan and make it more user friendly. We want people to be able to pick it up and understand it," Pilchowski said.

"The moratorium is like a time-out," she said. "Let's stop for a minute and think this through more clearly. Now, it is possible that some people will be inconvenienced by this. It was a hard decision to make, but we had to make it in order to get this done."

Both the Highland Township Master Plan and the Highland Station Design Statement will better clarify and establish a vision for the Highland, Pilchowski said.

"We want to be a place where we roll out the red carpet, not the red tape," she said.

The DDA is seeking members of the community who are willing to join focus groups in four key areas, covering eight specific topics: On-Street Parking, Circulation, Connectivity, Streetscape Design, Utilities, Building Design, Open Space Design and Public Space Design.

Land Design Studio identified three tasks that need to be accomplished in order for the Design Statement to be finalized. The first task is "Discovery and Grounding" which involves intensive historical research, surveys and data gathering. Task two is an intensive three-day workshop with focus groups of interested community members. Land Design Studio will bring in a variety of experts in community planning and participants will also visit similar communities.

Task Three is the final presentation of the Highland Station Design Statement on July 10. Between now and July there will also be various meetings that will help to further define and clarify Highland Station's vision.

"We've got business people who are champing at the bit to get started here," Pilchowski said. "No pun intended!" she laughed, recognizing Highland's equestrian history.

Jessie Ellis is a reporter for the Milford Times. She can be reached by phone at (248) 685-1507 ext. 18 or by e-mail at jjellis@gannett.com.