General Plan Committee Preps for Saturday's Town Hall Forum

During , the General Plan Update Steering Committee, led by Chair Denise Delmar and Vice Chair Kenneth Anhalt, discussed plans for this weekend's much anticipated , as well as continued a review and revision of the General Plan's Land Use Element.

Committee members Colin Braudrick, Wendy Davis, John Hutt, Ed Miller, Debora Sheridan and Teryl Willis were present for the discussion. Committee Member Leslee Hinton was absent from the meeting.

Much gratitude was expressed by committee members to volunteers who put many hours of hard work into planning, advertising and preparing for the Town Hall Forum, slated for Saturday, May 7, from 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. at the

An estimated 75 to 100 people are expected to show up for the second in the series, the.

“I’ve had a lot of questions asked to me about the upcoming forum," Committee Member Colin Braudrick said during the meeting. "There’s a lot of buzz out there and it has to do with the hard work that everybody out there has done by putting up signs and talking to their neighbors and getting the word out.”

Saturday's forum will be the second out of five such events planned by the committee and is intended to focus on the views of local families.

“This time we’re focusing on families with young kids and our churches and our schools and our businesses, and we’d like to hear what people think about that,”  Delmar said.

There will be 22 to 25 volunteers to help direct people to different tables set up in the fire station, each with specific questions posted on the adjacent walls. There will be large post boards where people write their opinions on the questions and then post them on the wall for all to see.

“As it goes throughout the day, it will be like a gigantic community brainstorming session,” Braudrick said.

An example of a question would be: Does Sierra Madre need more parks?

Answers to questions like these involving the type of facilities and places which shape the town will give feedback to committee members when making adjustments to the General Plan, which is updated every 15 to 20 years.

But not all of Saturday's event will be focused on city planning. There will be a jump house for kids, cotton candy and popcorn machines, as well as a kid's art table.