Ironically, a "forum" is defined as both an outdoor marketplace where social business is conducted and a meeting place for discussion of public or political concerns.

And the Atlanta group's proposed Forum at Sunnyvale Town Center, an open-air mixed-use project replacing the current Town Center Mall, has generated heated discussion for months. The developer calls the plan a "lifestyle center" because it incorporates retail, business and residential units in one space.

Residents can still voice their opinions to the Forum Group on April 29 in the Historic Del Monte building, 100 S. Murphy Ave., from 7 to 8:30 p.m. At the meeting, the Forum Group and its partners will address questions and concerns that were raised by residents at the first public meeting on April 7. Before the plans can be made official, they will still have to go before the planning commission and city council, which could happen sometime by June or July.

Some, like Il Postale owner and Sunnyvale Downtown Association President Joe Antuzzi, fear that the Forum project could draw business away from what some call the heart of Sunnyvale—S. Murphy Avenue.

"We don't want a Santana Row that stands alone on its island," Antuzzi said.

Others, like 80-year-old Sue Barbieri, who lives five blocks from downtown but takes a bus to Westfield Shoppingtown Valley Fair or Vallco Fashion Park to shop, welcome the idea of being able to shop in Sunnyvale.

Jane Vaughan, from Menlo Equities, who is acting as development project manager for the Forum Group, says the development will attract locals and visitors to Sunnyvale's downtown, bringing patrons to Town and Country Village and S. Murphy Avenue businesses.

But even though predictions for the future of the project are mixed, all parties agree that something has to be done to revitalize the area.

"Sunnyvale's mall needs to be redeveloped," Vaughan said. "Aesthetically, it's unattractive; functionally, people would rather have an area to go to, to walk through, to be proud of."

Developing a redevelopment

Today, the mall—with only Target and Macy's still open at the north and south ends—sits empty.

There have been several attempts to revitalize the area, but so far, none have been successful. Five years ago, American Mall Properties bought the mall and created plans to add another wing to the mall, placing a theater on top. Those plans never came to fruition. The Silicon Valley Walk and Village Entertainment project died when AMP's financier went bankrupt in September 2002.

Before AMP declared bankruptcy, Harvest Partners, out of Texas, began talking with AMP about redeveloping the area and ended up purchasing the JCPenney building.

During the bankruptcy proceedings with the mall, Forum entered into the picture, and a prolonged battle between Forum, its partners, and Harvest began. The lengthy feud did not end until February 2004, when Harvest agreed to sell the JCPenney building, making way for Forum's plans for the site.

As private firms were negotiating for a stake in the project, the city was also laying out its plans. In January of 2002, the city set up the Downtown Stakeholders Advisory Committee, chaired by Joe Antuzzi, to develop an urban design plan for the downtown area. By October of 2003, after extensive meetings—which included public input—the group came up with the City of Sunnyvale Urban Design Plan.

The design laid out plans to restore the old street grid between Iowa and Washington avenues and develop an open-air shopping district.

Even those original plans met with resistance, including objections from the Friends of Sunnyvale, who said that the stakeholders committee was not representative of the downtown community. Friends of Sunnyvale—a community action group led by current Councilwoman Melinda Hamilton—even collected signatures to put three initiatives opposing parts of the plan on the November 2003 ballot.

Nancy Tivol, executive director of Sunnyvale Community Services and a 30-year resident of Sunnyvale, said that the mall should have been done three years ago, and the time to get a quality product may be running out.

"If this doesn't go, I don't think a fourth developer is going to show interest, and [the site] will probably sit vacant for a long time, and probably become a big Wal-Mart," Tivol said.

Enter the Forum

Ron Pfohl, a managing member of Forum, said Sunnyvale was ideal for this type of "lifestyle center," because so many people live near the downtown area, and existing attractions on S. Murphy Avenue—its shops and restaurants collectively forming the area commonly referred to as "Murphy Street"—could only benefit from a new development project. By restoring the street grid, Forum said, it wants to encourage a steady flow of patrons from the new areas to the established parts of the Sunnyvale downtown.

Unlike the upscale shops of Santana Row, however, the plan for the center that Pfohl and his colleagues have always stressed is that of a more mid-level, mixed-use center, with offices, housing and mainstream stores like Abercrombie & Fitch, The Gap and a 16-screen multiplex theater.

At the heart of the plan is a three-quarter-acre town square where seven historic redwood trees have been growing in Sunnyvale for more than 70 years. They once stood outside the original City Hall, and Pfohl said that by saving them during the mall demolition, Forum hopes to use them as a centerpiece of the new project.

Some—like the Friends of Sunnyvale—are unhappy with the small parcel of land reserved for the town square.

"We feel that to really be able to call it a town square, it would have to be able to hold events," Friends of Sunnyvale President Paul Reed said.

Robert Paternoster, director of community development for the city of Sunnyvale, said Forum's plans—for the most part—are in line with the city's urban design plan from 2003.

Among the things that still need to be worked out between the city and the developer is the number of housing units—the city's urban design plan calls for 200, Forum wants 300.

"I think the most appealing part of [the Forum project] is that it's a plan to really rebuild the downtown, not just rebuild the mall," Paternoster said. "A downtown is a place you can work, live, shop and play, do everything."

Trying to find a balance

When IL Postale owner Joe Antuzzi looks out onto Washington Avenue from his restaurant, his view is cut short by the sidewall of the Macy's building. But the wall Antuzzi fears is not the one made of brick, but an intangible one created by redeveloping the Town Center Mall independent of the surrounding area.

According to Forum's site plans, "Murphy Street" was to extend through what is now Macy's parking lot to the parking structure on the corner of Sunnyvale and Iowa avenues. Early Forum drafts had a small plaza with trees lining the Murphy extension in front of Macy's, but more recent plans include shops where the plaza was proposed.

Antuzzi, as chairman of the Downtown Stakeholders Advisory committee, was in favor of the small plaza as a way to unify Murphy Street with the new development.

"There was a plan that mixed the old and the new to make one single downtown, but with the plans that stand now, there are two or three parts that cut the existing downtown out of the new project," Antuzzi said.

"It's just frustrating that for four years we've been working on a vision for Sunnyvale, and now that vision is being wholesaled out."

As part of the city's urban plan, plazas like the one originally outside Macy's were used to encourage pedestrian flow—in this case, from the Murphy extension into the existing Murphy Street area. Antuzzi fears that with shops now lining that area, less traffic will flow toward Murphy Street.

"We're afraid of an invisible wall between the old and the new, and by taking out that plaza, that invisible wall is now just a wall," Antuzzi said.

Reed from Friends of Sunnyvale said the extension of Murphy is hardly a street at all. Instead, he likened it to a "glorified driveway," leading shoppers toward the parking structure, not toward improved patronage of the area.

But Jane Vaughan, the Menlo Equities partner responsible for the project, thinks that the shops of Murphy Street will only benefit from an influx of shoppers.

As part of the design plan, Vaughan said, Forum is trying to make the two sides of Washington Avenue into a single area flowing into Murphy Street, to keep people moving through the downtown.

"We're trying to align our side of Washington so that when you're walking down the new section of Murphy, it feels perfectly natural to cross over to the existing Murphy," Vaughan said.

And the existing section of Murphy has something no developer can hope to offer—history.

"Even though we feel our project is high quality, you can't create the charm that comes from being in business for 30 years, so having the two sides [of Murphy] blend—and allowing the customer to move back and forth—will benefit all of the downtown," Vaughan said. "There are a lot of terrific restaurants on Murphy, and if you get people to visit the Forum, they will spill over."

Walk this way

Regardless of where that foot traffic goes once it gets to the Forum at Sunnyvale Town Center, a new shopping center is guaranteed to bring shoppers to the area.

Life's Garden resident Sue Barbieri has lived in Sunnyvale for 25 years and laments having to drive or take county transit to shop.

"Like many seniors, I have to take the bus to Vallco or Valley Fair to do my shopping," Barbieri said. "I have to take one bus to Vallco, and switch buses if I want to get to Valley Fair."

She said that not only would she and her fellow senior citizens patronize the center, but having an attraction like that in the middle of the downtown area would give them an incentive to get out and walk.

"The seniors will be walking there, we'll really support the community," Barbieri said. "And maybe we're not going to use all the stores, but somebody will."

It only takes Barbieri, 80, about 15 minutes to walk the five blocks from her house to the mall site, and with mixed-use shopping to look forward to, she says she and her fellow residents will be walking there as soon as it opens.

Nancy Tivol, who says she shops online rather than take congested roads to nearby shopping areas, says that a mixed-use area would bring in a wider variety of customers. It will also allow the Forum to survive trends and economy changes by offering a plethora of options for visitors.

Joe Antuzzi says by offering Sunnyvale residents a theater to compete with Santa Clara's Mercado, the Forum will also encourage local nightlife.

And by providing housing—a percentage of which is required to be sold at below-market rates—Tivol says the housing crunch and urban sprawl in the area can be lessened.

Paul Reed and the Friends of Sunnyvale are for many of the retail aspects of the development but have spoken out against buildings 65-feet high and the 300 housing units the Forum group is asking for, and they say there is no place for a theater, especially a 16-screen multiplex. Instead, Reed said, a smaller, independent theater like San Jose's Camera Three could be used to attract a movie-going crowd.

"This is going to be our downtown, and I don't see any really successful downtowns that have a multiplex in the center of it," Reed said.

The Friends of Sunnyvale have also expressed their desire for more underground parking to reduce the space crunch on the ground level.

"We're not asking for all the parking to be underground, but if they put more underground parking in, they could open up the street grid more," Reed said.

Jane Vaughan—who has worked with a number of developers—said that aboveground parking, in this situation, is the best choice.

"We have to provide ample parking or the project will die immediately," Vaughan said. "Retailers don't like underground parking; it's a safety issue for their customers."

Retail sales are a major selling point for the city of Sunnyvale and residents. Tivol says that by keeping shoppers in the area, tax dollars that would normally go to Palo Alto, Mountain View or San Jose will be redirected into city coffers, funding vital programs like public safety, street maintenance and community services.

"It's been awful for the community to not have a place to shop," Barbieri says. "We want something for our city, we don't want to go out of our city to shop."

But aside from the benefits to Sunnyvale's service levels, many simply find the idea of a comprehensive lifestyle center in the heart of Sunnyvale appealing.

"I wouldn't support [the plan] if I didn't like it," Tivol said. "I'm really looking forward to being able to shop and go to the movies in Sunnyvale."