Covered walkways—Arcades have been used for centuries. Today, they are more popular than ever. Covered walkways provide the best of both worlds, a connection to the outdoors and an all-weather shopping environment. To be able to sit outdoors in any weather and shop comfortably benefits shoppers and retailers and provides a human scale to large buildings.

Open street grid—A truly traditional downtown includes an open street grid with unique storefronts and varied architecture. Taaffe Street and Murphy Avenue must be extended as true streets, not glorified driveways. Taaffe should not be canted in the awkward way it exists. Murphy Avenue, our only historical downtown left, must be extended in a way that integrates the old and new. To make it a driveway that passes next to a parking garage is an insult to the spirit of the street. The developer should look at opening other streets, too. We should have more than just McKinley as the storefronted street. Palo Alto is an excellent example of a downtown with an open street grid.

Building heights—Friends of Sunnyvale have always stood by the 46-foot height limit for most buildings. Three to 3¹/2 stories is the optimum for comfortable human scale. That height balances the need for mixed-use structures and not having buildings so high that they block the view of the sun. Forty-six feet provides a generous first-floor height for retail and two more floors that could be office or residential.

Parking—Mixed parking, including underground parking, is the answer to opening up the street grid, lower building heights and providing more open space. Of course the new existing parking structure has to remain and some surface parking is necessary, but putting in more underground parking (one to two levels) will open up the plan in a dramatic way. Sunnyvale will not have this opportunity again and the investment required is worth it. The developer balks at the idea as too expensive, but a citywide bond could be the answer. Payments would be through parking fees paid by the new retail businesses. The current downtown merchants pay into a similar parking fund right now. Having more underground parking would free up the space for a larger town square. The proposed three-quarter-acre space is not useful for any kind of gathering. The proposed parking towers lock us into a static design that cannot easily change.

Open space—The city of Sunnyvale previously provided a downtown open space across from the train station on Evelyn. Unfortunately, it is not a location central to anything and it is really too small to be useful. The space looks like a pocket park for the six-story Mozart building, not a true community space. Now, the Forum Group is offering an even smaller space (smaller by 40 percent), and it is calling that space a "town square." Sunnyvale residents want a real town square, not shaded by tall buildings, a space that really is central and can be used for multiple types of events.

Theaters—The number of theater seats proposed would take away from the downtown. Theaters would increase traffic congestion and noise. To get a feeling of what a successful multiplex brings to an area, go to the Mercado in Santa Clara. What you will find are cars speeding through residential streets, acres and acres of parking lot, lots of late-night noise and people not really interested in shopping. Let's get real on this one. A multiplex theater with 18 screens is not what we need in our downtown. Consider deleting the theaters and having a real downtown.

Housing—Balance, balance, balance. Some housing next to our train station makes sense, but let's not take up too much space in our retail "engine." Retail is what will benefit the downtown and create tax income to the city for years. A lot of residential units only benefit the developers. They get a lot of money upfront that way and can "turn" (sell) the project a lot sooner. They want up to 75 percent more housing than the General Plan allows for on their site. Don't let them have it; 200 homes in our main retail area is enough. Build our downtown and the homes will come, but don't build them on our choice retail and office site.

Parcel size and Development pattern—The Forum Group has the opportunity to provide future flexibility into the site for itself and the city. The newly divided street grid downtown can be split into smaller land parcels that could be sold at a later date. If the area contains smaller parcels, the downtown can reinvent itself as time goes by. If the downtown is not in one big land block, buildings can come and go and add to the health and vigor of a changing downtown. The existing dead-dinosaur mall could not reinvent itself. The old mall locked itself into 1976 thinking; let's not lock ourselves into 2004 thinking. Again, Palo Alto is a great example of a downtown model that has stayed flexible. Its flexibility includes chain and non-chain retail stores.

That is it, eight points that will get us where we need to go. Where is that? Sunnyvale as a traditional, flexible, friendly, integrated suburban downtown. How do we get there? By a balance of the needs of the developer and the citizens of Sunnyvale. Friends of Sunnyvale are not "holdouts," but we are holding out for a real downtown. There is not much time left to push for our downtown vision, but we'll keep pushing while there is still time and people who will listen.

Remember, this is not just a private project; the citizens of Sunnyvale are providing land and millions of dollars. As citizens we are giving up tax increment dollars. This is a joint venture with the developers and the citizens. We should not only have our say because it is our downtown, but because we are paying to have our say.

Please, have your say before it is really too late.

Paul Jay Reed is president of the Friends of Sunnyvale.