GREENSBORO, N.C. — The City of Greensboro is working to help provide people with new choices for where and how they live and being able to get to the places they need to in more than one way.

Sue Schwartz and Hanna Cockburn enjoy strolling through downtown Greensboro in an area that’s set to become car-optional in the future.

"Rezonings that are compact and have more density and mixture of uses, so you have retail and housing, office all together so that makes walkable reasonable," said Schwartz, the city's director of planning.

It’s a part of the GSO2040 comprehensive plan, a combination of planning decisions and policies that shape how The Gate City will look within the next decade. Walkability is high on the list.

"Making sure the roads are right-sized, that we have sidewalks that connect to things and connect to each other, and we’re making important greenway connects that we are otherwise missing," said Cockburn, the city's director of transportation.

Schwartz and Cockburn are integral to developing car-optional areas.

"Given the time and decade they were built. We have smaller lots, smaller streets, and it made more sense as we built through the automobile era, things spread out, they’ll be a little more challenging,” Schwartz said.

Connecting those areas are crucial, the GSO2040 plan includes adding more bike lanes and sidewalks to do just that.

"And all that needs to work together, so our goal is to create an interconnected system that connects you to other places and to the places that you want to go," Cockburn said.

And they’re wanting to make it affordable and convenient for people to move around.

The GSO2040 plan is working to create the City of Greensboro as a more desirable place to live and work. Other cities around the state, such as Kings Mountain, Charlotte, New Hanover County and Fayetteville, all have 2040 comprehensive plans.