The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) held its third public meeting on May 21 to discuss the future of one of Boston’s most useful and beautiful parks.

The Southwest Corridor Park runs along the Orange Line from the Back Bay through Jamaica Plain. The park’s 52 acres date back to the 1960s and see thousands of visitors each day, a combination that prompted the DCR in July to begin formulating a plan for critical repairs and improvements.

The northernmost section is among the most attractive with its extensive infrastructure and greenery, and planners aim to regrade those paths that have fallen into inaccessibility for residents unable to mantle steep curbs and cracked sidewalks.

The plan will also replace and repair bike racks and cycling infrastructure around the park, which could prove controversial given the tensions that have always existed between the pedestrians that dominate the northern reaches and the bicycle commuters coming up from the south.

Those relations may become a bit more harmonious with the addition of wider sidewalks and extra curb ramps to help bikes to avoid pedestrians. Landscape architect Stephanie Weyer with the Toole Design Group says they still envision the northern sections of the park as equally accessible to cyclists and walkers.

“Throughout the whole of the South End, we want to create a shared street wherever sidewalks and bike lanes parallel the road. We’ll be using paint through community art projects to highlight how that roadway is a community space accessible to everyone, as well as signs that signal use,” she said.

The DCR is also planning to grow additional tree cover, though this is complicated somewhat since it doesn’t actually own the section most in need of it.

“The first segment of the park is a little underwhelming since we don’t actually own and care for it,” said lead architecture consultant Kyle Zick. “First-time users don’t even necessarily know the park is here. We hope to have conversations with the developer of Copley Place, who owns this segment, to improve the park’s signage and do some additional tree planting.”

That will cover trees that have died and spots without coverage, though Zick said the greenery in other parts of the northern stretch need little improvement.

The plan will nevertheless be bringing upgrades to the community garden beside West Canton Street.

“Those recommendations include accessibility improvements, improvements to the water system, pathways, plot identification storage, fencing, rodent control. That’s a whole separate project but it does get lumped in here,” Zick said.

The dog park and playground next door will be getting updates and repairs to its 13 benches. A further 12 benches will be renovated in the stretch closer to Massachusetts Avenue. The entrance to Massachusetts Avenue will be opened up, with its obscuring gateway removed and an open shared ramp replacing today’s split paths.

“We think this can be improved quite a bit by getting rid of that. Why not just remove it altogether? You don’t need a gateway, you need to actually see the park,” said Zick.

Public comments during the May 21 meeting were supportive, especially about the prospect of taking down the billboard entrance that today blocks off Massachusetts Avenue.

The next step in the process will be finalizing design and beginning implementation, with one last public meeting on June 18. The plan to actually realize those final blueprints will be complete in July.