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A group of residents plans to rally tonight at Triangle Park, protesting a city plan to transform the area into a cultural arts hub for downtown.

Kim Kramer, the spokesman for the Huntington Beach Downtown Residents Assn., said more than 200 people may attend the demonstration, which is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in the park at the intersection of Main and Sixth streets. The city’s Downtown Specific Plan, released in draft form in December, outlines a proposal to develop the park area with a performing arts venue, an art gallery, underground parking and other uses.

To Kramer and his association, which formed in the last few months to combat the project, having a massive cultural center could lead to any number of problems for the neighborhood, from gridlocked traffic to noisy crowds to homeless people camping out in the public restrooms.

“We don’t mind so much a cultural center,” Kramer said. “A cultural center could be a good thing. But the bottom line is, they want to build it in the heart of a residential community.”

City officials claim that the current version of the Downtown Specific Plan is far from final, and that any definite plans for development in the park are a ways in the future.

The Planning Commission is expected to vote on the issue in September, with a City Council vote to follow.

If the council greenlights the project, it will need further approval from the California Coastal Commission, according to Jennifer Villasenor, an associate planner for the city.

“I think they’re premature in their opposition, but it’s pretty normal,” Mayor Keith Bohr said. “Anything, any time, anywhere you want to develop anything, you have resistance from the immediate neighbors.”

Having an attractive tourist spot in the park, he said, could serve as an “anchor” for the downtown area that stretches to the beach.

He noted, though, that the project would require a public vote before construction could begin.

“We’re at a very early phase, but our hope is that we can come up with a plan that would give us a 21st-century library and enhance our cultural node and be the cultural gateway to downtown,” Bohr said.

In addition to the performing arts venue and gallery, the first draft of the plan mentions a museum, retail outlets and multifamily residential units, which would require a conditional use permit from the Planning Commission. The plan also includes the existing library that borders the park area. According to the first draft, at least 30% of the site area must be preserved as public open space.

A second version of the Downtown Specific Plan is expected to go online Friday, Villasenor said, but it will feature few changes in the proposal for Triangle Park. Even still, she added, the plan amounts to no more than guidelines for what could be constructed in the area, and none of the projects may ever come to fruition.

“We don’t have any development proposals right now,” Villasenor said.

Nevertheless, Councilwoman Jill Hardy, who plans to attend the rally, said she sympathizes with the concerns of people who live in the area.

“I love that library, and I love the fact that there’s a little bit of grass on Main Street,” Hardy said.

“And I know the neighbors appreciate it.”