The interest has more to do with the corridor project's design kits.

These kits are so comprehensive that they have become models for other planning professionals.

"We've gotten requests for design kits from a number of people who do park planning, including one planner as far away as Ontario, Canada," says Therese Smith, director of the city's parks and recreation department.

As a tool for Cupertino residents to share their vision for the 60-acre corridor, each kit contains three sprawling maps of the property, a large aerial photograph of the parkland, instructional DVDs and a thick packet of additional background information about the corridor.

Template sheets containing cutouts for parking spaces, community gardens, sports facilities and more are included in the kit, and there are materials such as yarn, thread and ribbon to represent a multi-use path, a pedestrian path and a road, all of which can be pasted on one of the maps.

"We've included everything you would need to begin to prepare a conceptual plan," Smith says.

Smith first thought about creating the kits in the summer of 2002. At that time her department had just concluded a feasibility study on the Stevens Creek Trail, a project planned for the 60-acre corridor, which covers the areas of Blackberry Farm, McClellan Ranch and the Stocklmeir and Simms properties.

Besides disagreement from the community about what kind of trail to put in, the project also raised many issues regarding the long-term use of these properties. That was when residents criticized the project's process and when Smith began thinking about how to address the complaints.

"We held eight focus groups to hear residents' concerns, and we heard over and over again that three minutes to speak at a public meeting was not enough time to communicate ideas. So I started thinking about preparing the kits," Smith says.

"Over the two-year period, there were people who committed nearly a hundred hours to attend public meetings on the trail study," Smith continues. "I figured if folks were willing to spend that much time on an issue, it would be a good idea to give them some tools to work with so they could share their ideas."

A team of staff and consultants assembled and distributed 320 kits to interested individuals and groups during a kickoff meeting in March. Participants have had 30 days to generate their proposals. The deadline for kit submittal is April 24.

"After that we'll know more about how good an exercise this was, but from the feedback that I've received so far, I think the council and parks and recreation commission will have a lot of good ideas to look at," Smith says.

The Cupertino City Council and parks and recreation commission will meet in a joint study session on May 12 to peruse all the submitted kits.