GREENSBORO -- East Gate City Boulevard in Greensboro offers a lot.

"Here we have a collection of assets. We have the joint School for Nanoscience and Engineering, We have the Gateway University Research Park, we also have Hayes-Taylor YMCA and where we're standing at Gateway Gardens," said Sue Schwartz, the City of Greensboro’s planning director.

Along with the surrounding neighborhoods. But the problem is that they’re secluded from each other.

"They are kind of independent at the moment. We think there's an opportunity to really pull them together so we can make something really spectacular for the gateway into the city but to also create services and other things that people need," said Schwartz.

The Greensboro Planning Department received a grant from the American Planning Association's Community Planning Assistance Team or, CPAT where they invited experts in this area, which is the "Innovation Village" to give recommendations on how to connect all these existing resources.

"Four planners, plus one of the APA staff people came to Greensboro for five full days, totally volunteer. They came from Chicago, Houston, Kansas City and Dublin, Ohio and they brought different areas of expertise to us," said Schwartz.

These neighbors were invited to public meetings where they offered suggestions like bringing shops and restaurants to the area.

"They want to be proud of where they live, they want it to connect to things. They want places to eat, they want places to shop. They want where they live something they can be proud of and call home," said Hart Crane, the City of Greensboro’s redevelopment planner.

The group broke recommendations down into three parts: quick wins, intermediate steps and longer term vision and naturally, they'll focus on the quick wins.

"The idea of having regular food truck Friday's that brings a, not just for the Gateway Research Park but for Hayes-Taylor and for the broader community, simple things like that," said Schwartz.

Providing a foundation for future plans.

The city planning department should receive a written report of recommendations by the first of the year.