The organization charged with shaping the future of an expanse of land in Redwood City roughly the size of the Presidio is poised to ask the community for more concrete ideas about how to use the space.

At a meeting today, Redwood City Saltworks - a group formed by Cargill Inc., which owns the 1,433 acres of land east of Highway 101 - plans to recap comments it has heard in the past four months from the Redwood City community.

Cargill plans to phase out its industrial salt-harvesting operations over the next several years.

The saltworks group has held community forums on a variety of broad topics that relate to potential uses for the land, including housing, open space, the local economy and transportation.

Those meetings were largely conceptual and intended to gauge the priorities of the community without talking specifically about Cargill's land.

The next phase of the public outreach process is to gather community opinions on what should go into the ultimate plan for the land, said Jay Reed, spokesman for the saltworks group.

"It allows those members of the community that are actively involved in the planning process (to) see their fingerprints on what actually gets generated," said John Bruno, general manager of the group.

Eventually, a concrete plan will be drawn up for the site, though Reed said the company has not yet formed an architectural and planning team and intends to keep gathering public input for at least another year.

Open space advocates, such as the Friends of Redwood City group, have said the site should be maintained as wetlands with a community park and trails.

Others have suggested building housing or mixed-use developments to ease the housing shortage on the Peninsula.

Some residents expressed frustration at the community forums that there was no plan for them to consider and comment on. But the organizers of the outreach process, development firm DMB Associates Inc., say the process is deliberate by design.

The summary meeting and open house will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today at Pacific Shores Cafeteria, 1600 Seaport Blvd., Redwood City.