Hiring an urban planner was the first thing placed on the table at the first meeting of Anderson’s Housing Task Force.

The group, made of 13 people, met Wednesday to discuss a new approach to improving the city’s neighborhoods. City officials decided earlier this year to create the task force -- composed of bankers, preachers, non-profit leaders and business people.

“We have been tearing down old houses and working with our nuisance-abatement programs,” said Willie Day, the city’s housing director. “But we’ve got to look beyond that to every aspect that makes a neighborhood viable.”

So Day and other city officials, including Mayor Terence Roberts, made a suggestion that the task force look at hiring an urban planner to develop a master plan on how to improve the neighborhoods and where to find the funding to do that. An urban planner could bring added expertise to the table, Roberts and others on the task force said. One task force member also said a planner could help the task force develop a vision for the task force.

The task force is meant to be an advisory board to the Anderson City Council.

An estimate on how much an urban planner would cost was not available Wednesday. But Roberts and council member Tom Dunaway said the money could be found to hire someone for the short term if that’s what the task force recommended.

When looking at the neighborhoods, several members of the task force agreed that looking at more than just affordable housing would be necessary.

“What can be done to those neighborhoods to get rid of the image that they have?” Anderson Realtor Robert Mecke asked. “We need to look at ‘neighborhood’ and not just look at housing.”

However, a couple of the task force members urged some caution with the task force, saying that more thought needs to be put into the idea of hiring an urban planner.

“Let’s get to know each other first,” said Horace Alexander, leader in the city’s Southeast community. “I have served on other committees and this is one of the most diverse that I have seen. At the table, we may have the resources that a consultant could bring to the table.”

The task force’s next meeting is at noon Sept. 3 in the Anderson Municipal Business Center on South Main Street. Another goal on the task force’s to-do list is to look at some of the neighborhood projects already underway in the city.