This was two days after the city's redevelopment agency unanimously approved a motion to select Forum and Lehman ALI, owner of the JCPenney building, as the master developers for the Town Center Mall site.

Forum's supporters include city council members, residents, downtown business owners and such corporations as Yahoo, Juniper and Network Appliance.

Sue Barbieri, 81, said she wants a downtown. And she hopes the Forum Development Group will make her wish come true.

To do her Sunday shopping, Barbieri has to take a bus to Vallco Fashion Park, and she walks the 3.5 miles back to her home at Life's Garden, she says, because she gets impatient transferring from bus to bus. But if the city approves the Forum's project, she will only need to walk five blocks and will do her shopping right here in Sunnyvale.

"Seniors like to walk, but there is no place to walk to in Sunnyvale,' Barbieri said at the April 29 community meeting in the Historic Del Monte Building. 'There is no place to shop in Sunnyvale except Target and Macy's. I think the developers have a great project.'

Darren Bouton, who moved to downtown Sunnyvale a few years ago, said he likes the project and would love to see it move forward.

'I'd rather not have to drive to Valley Fair to do my Christmas shopping, drive to Shoreline to see movies. I would love to walk downtown to do my shopping. I want to keep my tax dollars here in Sunnyvale,' Bouton said.

Barbieri and Bouton were among the 30-some people who spoke in favor of the Forum's proposal. The audience applauded when people spoke for the project.

Thom Bryant, director of workplace resources for Network Appliance, said his Sunnyvale-based company supports the project and would like to see the developer build more than the proposed 300 residential units. Thirty-eight of the units will be for below-market-rate housing.

'We have 1,500 employees right now, and we will add another 1,500 employees in the next five years. The problem I am concerned with is housing. The new employees will not come here if we don't have enough affordable housing,' said Bryant.

Jane Vaughan, manager for the project, said she was pleased by the support because the project has met a lot of resistance. The Friends of Sunnyvale, a community action group, even collected signatures to put three initiatives opposing parts of the plan on the November 2003 ballot.

Some residents are still concerned about the development's plans for height and setback, but Vaughan said the architectural team will hammer out the details. The developer also assured business owners on S. Murphy Avenue that the development, instead of taking away their customers, will draw more patrons to Murphy Avenue.

'It's just like The Grove in Los Angeles: the old Farmers Market business owners, who originally worried that their business would be affected, have a 60 percent increase in their profits,' said Tom Paradise of Standards Pacific Homes, who is involved in The Grove project.

Vaughan said the developer will keep taking input from the residents and design the project accordingly.

'We are willing to listen,' Vaughan said. 'We believe the project will be wonderful for Sunnyvale.'