NATCHEZ — While most are looking ahead to 2016 — Natchez’s 300th birthday year — others are looking past the tricentennial, and planning for the city’s future.

Representatives of FOR (Friends of Our Riverfront) Natchez will present their Tricentennial Legacy Project to the Natchez Board of Aldermen Monday.

Chesney Doyle, member of FOR Natchez, said the project is an action-based plan for the revitalization of downtown Natchez.

“The plan would focus on the responsible economic development of downtown’s two most prominent anchors — the Natchez Bluff area, encompassing parts of Broadway and Canal, and the Black History District,” Doyle said.

The Black History District, Doyle said, would encompass parts of Martin Luther King, St. Catherine and Franklin streets.

Phil Walker, who was the Natchez city planner from 1991 to 1993, designed the project, Doyle said.

Walker — who now lives in Nashville, Tenn., where he spearheads his own urban planning practice — was also recently hired by the city to revise the city’s developmental code, which was completed last year.

Through using Walker’s expertise, community input and funds from planning grants and FOR Natchez contributions, Doyle said the project has the power to move downtown Natchez into a bright future — one that would last the next 300 years.

“We want to revitalize our downtown and ultimately the entire city so that Natchez can attract new investors, and most importantly, keep our own young people living in Natchez and working in Natchez,” she said.

For more information on FOR Natchez, visit for-natchez.org.

The presentation will begin at 4 p.m. in the city’s conference room in City Hall.