The Charlottetown Area Development Corporation is developing ideas for what to do with the area at the foot of the Hillsborough Bridge, one of the city's main entrances.

'Will it develop exactly according to plan? Most likely not," says Ron Waite. (CBC)

The CADC is considering a large swathe of land, stretching from an oil tank farm and up past a collection of private homes and businesses to the Civic Centre, as well as a large empty property contaminated by an oil tank farm previously located there.

CADC chair Ron Waite said the study is more of a vision for the area than a hard and fast plan.

"You kind of have to discount who owns the property at this stage, and really say what makes sense and what's the best kind of development for the area," said Waite.

"Will it develop exactly according to plan? Most likely not. But if you don't do some planning, you will have haphazard development and then later you'll say I wish we would have done this differently."

CADC will issue a request for proposals to design a plan for the area over the next 15 to 20 years. It will include traffic and pedestrian studies and plenty of public consultation. Whoever gets the contract will likely spend the next year coming up with a plan. Property owners in the area will be consulted.

As for who would ultimately buy properties or make changes, Waite said those kinds of decisions would come later.