OGDEN — It will be years before any dirt turns along Wall Avenue surrounding one of Ogden’s most recognizable landmarks as part of the planned Union Station Neighborhood, but the spark was lit Thursday night.

A community conversation — hosted by the redevelopment team made up of representatives from McWhinney, J. Fisher Cos., the Utah Transit Authority and the City of Ogden — was held at Union Station with a simple premise: start finding out what the public wants and doesn’t wont done with Union Station and the surrounding lands.

The night’s festivities kicked off with local historians sharing their own experiences with Union Station, the area around it and what it has meant in their lives.

Then all three were asked to give their own advice for developers on what they’d like to see done with the historic structure and the surrounding area.

Sarah Langsdon, head of special collections at Weber State University, said it’s critical to keep the building’s history alive.

“I hope that you realize the historical importance of the building and what happened here and the connection that people have to this building,” she said. “There was such a symbiotic relationship (with the city), which is why when railroad traffic stopped coming through Ogden, Ogden took a downturn and it wasn’t until after that Ogden peaked back up again.”

Former Standard-Examiner reporter Charles Trentelman said the station is already a symbol for the city and needs to be kept as such through any redevelopment of the area.

“That symbiotic relationship of Union Station with the neighborhood and with the city is something to be kept in mind as we move forward,” he said. “This building just represents Ogden. It’s on all the city’s icons, it’s on all of the letterheads and everything. It just is and can be an integral part of anything we end up with.”

Lee Witten said it’s key to keep the railroad a part of Union Station.

“I’m a rail fan and I want trains to always be here, even if there is commercial development around the campus,” he said. “What I would like to see is that the Union Station have nothing to obstruct its facade — any buildings should be north or south of it. I’d like to see the Eccles Rail Center improved and have a complete canopy, at least, to protect these historic pieces of equipment from rotting away. I would like to see a live track — at least one track — be connected to the Union Pacific and UTA system so that both UTA and Union Pacific with their big steam locomotives can still come in for special events which draw hundreds, if not thousands, of people here.”

He said that this is advice that others haven’t always heeded.

“Don’t make the mistake that Salt Lake City did and completely isolate two beautiful depots from any live track and any possibility of relating directly to the railroad,” he said. “We need developers and planners to have a knowledge of railroad history and know what needs to be preserved and developed in order for Ogden to retain this historic identity.”

Following the presentation, patrons were allowed to wander about the Browning Theater where they could discuss the plans with developers, give feedback and even sign up to provide video testimonials about their memories of the station.

Krista Sprenger, executive vice president of mixed-use with McWhinney, a Colorado-based real estate investment and development company, told the Standard-Examiner the scope of the proposal.

“Ogden Union Station is a 30-acre redevelopment project focused on, ‘How do we preserve the character and heritage of Ogden Union station and how do we make a complete community and build the fabric around it on the remaining land that surrounds Union Station,'” she said.

Robb Berg, president of Denver-based Design Workshop, told the Standard-Examiner that Thursday was only the beginning.

“We’re really excited to kick off what we’re calling the storyteller series, which is the beginning of a much longer community engagement process,” he said. “It’s really about understanding the true history of Union Station and the Union Station neighborhood, which is much broader than Union Station itself.”

He said Thursday night was the launch of a six- to nine-month effort to get public feedback from the community to plan a development that reflects what the people of Ogden want it to look like.

“What we’ve been very careful about — this development team in particular — is to not pick up a pencil or start drawing until we authentically go through this process with the city and the community to find out what they want,” he said. “We have not drawn anything. What you see on the board are the boundaries of the development, but we have not planned anything. That’s purposeful because we want to hear what people want in this and how to respect the historic nature of this facility in the development before we start to draw anything.”

According to some of the material on-site Thursday, it could take until well into 2025 before final plans get into the funding and planning phases. Sprenger said keeping momentum up this long is down to keeping the public in the loop on the project.

“We spend a lot of time continuing to engage with the community, continuing to push the projects forward little by little but making sure we’re in an active dialogue and staying positive and excited, bringing new things to the table each time,” she said.

Berg said there will be more events being planned to gain feedback in the coming months.

“We’re going to unveil a whole series of these listening sessions,” he said. “We’ve been talking about things like ‘Night at the Museum’ to talk about the museums that are here, give backstage tours of Union Station. … We’d love to give walking tours for the community so they can understand the great treasure trove of assets that already exist.”

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