Infrastructure and development have been recurring topics at St. Helena City Council discussions, but the underlying question is, what should St. Helena look like 20 years from now?

Updating the city's general plan, essentially drawing a map of St. Helena's future, is one of the city's biggest projects of 2007.

Last week Bill Savidge, representing the general plan update subcommittee, recommended the council hire the consulting firm EDAW to guide both the general plan update and ideas for Adams Street, which will be rolled into the general plan discussions.

According to a tentative timeline laid out by city staff, the council wouldn't approve EDAW's contract until January. After the contract is signed, EDAW would work with the subcommittee to get an idea of what the update needs to involve. The council would provide additional input on EDAW's preliminary findings.

One question is whether the city should modify the existing general plan or start from scratch. Writing an entirely new plan would take significantly longer, but might be necessary if the community wants to make drastic changes.

In June, community meetings are scheduled to begin. The city intends to have a new general plan in place by 2008.

"It takes time to extract from the whole community exactly what they want the town to look like and feel like, and then convey that into a document that everybody buys into," said Sklar. "It's not something you want to rush."

Established as a temporary body, the general plan update subcommittee first met in July 2005 to suggest a process and a consultant to guide the update. Since those goals have been met, Savidge suggested the subcommittee disband and the council form a more diverse committee.