Today, that street grid is a vital part of the Forum Development Group's plans to build what they are calling a new "lifestyle center" to revitalize Sunnyvale's downtown. Forum held a meeting on April 7 to get more input like Maloney's from the community and ended up getting more than just street recommendations.

It took Forum almost a week to process and record all the comments, concerns and criticisms sent their way after the April 7 public meeting on their plans for the Town Center Mall site. And on April 29, Forum managing member Ron Pfohl and his colleagues will go back before the public again.

"We just have to go through and address all those issues as best we can," Pfohl said from Forum's office in Atlanta, Ga. "It's a challenging process, we've got a lot of people with different expectations, and we know we can't please everyone."

Over 200 people attended the April 7 meeting, including former city council members, planning commissioners and representatives from other community organizations.

Planning Commission Chairman Laura Babcock said that she thinks the next meeting needs to focus specifically on Sunnyvale's downtown project because more than an hour of the last meeting was taken up introducing the Forum group and their associates. While lack of time forced the public speakers who followed to rush through their comments, Babcock said she understood that the introductions had to happen, so the community knew who would be working in the area, and where questions should be directed.

One of those residents who spoke, Joe Antuzzi, chair of the Sunnyvale Downtown Association and owner of Il Postale, said he hopes the next meeting is less of a "dog and pony show" and more of a chance to address the issues brought up at the first meeting.

Antuzzi expressed concerns at the first meeting over the flow of shopping traffic through the proposed area and Murphy Street. He said he worries that the new development will not flow into the established shopping areas, and instead draw crowds away from Murphy Street and into the center of the "new downtown."

"I hope that they listened to us, and don't just give us lip service or pat us on the head," Antuzzi said. "What we've worked for in the last five years here is a unified downtown, not separate districts."

Part of that unity is a restoration of the traditional street grid in the area, created by extending Taafe Street, McKinley Avenue and Murphy Avenue through the proposed site. The extension of Murphy Street was first proposed over a year ago by the Friends of Sunnyvale, and Pfohl said that sort of input is exactly what they had hoped to gather at the first April meeting, to address at the second. Every place Forum has held a meeting like this, Pfohl said community groups help to highlight the specific needs of that area.

"It's what we expected, because you have groups that play certain roles in a community, like watchdogs," Pfohl said. "And you see groups like that everywhere."

Babcock said the incorporation of Friends of Sunnyvale's ideas show that Forum is willing to work with the community, but she hopes they can address all the concerns brought up on April 7.

Pfohl said he and his colleagues will attempt to address as many of them as possible, and if a solution cannot be presented, to explain what the circumstances are that dictate a particular decision.

"We really are excited about Sunnyvale," Pfohl said. "It's an opportunity to come in to a downtown area and do something special."