The Mississippi Main Street Association Resource Team will hold a community assessment for downtown Laurel next week.

Jacqueline Lee, director of Laurel Express, said the local Main Street Program will be hosting the state group during its visit.

Lee said the tour, which will be conducted on March 23-26, is usually conducted during a group’s first year of designation as a Main Street community.

In March 2008, the City of Laurel officially became designated as a Mississippi Main Street community.

Lee said during the week, MMSA Southern District Manager Stacy Pair, Central District Manager Jan Miller and Director of Design Services Randy Wilson will tour downtown Laurel. She said the Resource Team will also conduct confidential interviews with community leaders and offer immediate guidance to Laurel Express committees in the areas of promotion, design and economic restructuring.

Lee said the purpose of this assessment is to gauge community consensus on the desired direction of downtown planning.

Additionally, John Brandon, manager of Existing Industry and Business for the Mississippi Development Authority, will offer retail consultation to five select downtown retailers on March 25-26.

Lee said these assessment and charrette services are provided to Laurel Express, as part of its membership as a Mississippi Main Street project.

Officials said the tour will just go along with various other improvements being made to the city’s downtown.

Lee said the community is invited to attend a presentation by Randy Wilson at the Train Depot at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The Laurel Express director said Wilson will show how the charrette has been a key tool in community development throughout the Southeast.

Lee said this will not be the end to the program’s assessment.

“Pair, Miller and Wilson will return in July 2009 with an expanded Resource Team to conduct a three-day marketing and design challenge, called a charrette,” she said. “At the conclusion of the charrette, the team will present a proposed comprehensive plan to the community.”

Lee said the proposal will be based on the charrette experience as well as the findings of the March assessment.

“A charrette is a brief but intense design workshop in which stakeholders and interested citizens are invited to contribute to the work of an interdisciplinary team of planners during the early stages of a development or re-development effort,” Lee explained. “A well-known example took place following Hurricane Katrina, when international architects and planners participated in a large-scale charrette on the Mississippi Gulf Coast to kick-start revitalization efforts. From this charrette, the colorful Katrina cottage concept was born as an aesthetic solution to the FEMA trailer.”