While a blue-ribbon panel of community and business interests have been examining the future of Issaquah, a regional conservation group is polling and spurring debate of local residents on the same matter.

Hosting a public forum Nov. 19 called “The Cascade Agenda Cities Program,” conservation advocacy group Cascade Land Conservancy (CLC) is working to attract and shape local public opinion plans to grow and expand the city and its neighborhoods. Another meeting, centered around community organizing and campaign strategy, is scheduled for Dec. 10.

Just as the mayor-appointed Central Issaquah Plan Advisory Task Force works to shape city planning policy from the inside, CLC Community Engagement Manager Skye Schell hopes the forum will bring the community into the process of shaping the vision of Issaquah.

Officials project approximately 5,700 more households will be built in Issaquah by 2040, based on the state’s comprehensive management of regional growth known as the Growth Management Act. That growth is part of an expected influx of approximately 1.4 million residents in the Seattle Metro area.

Schell advised about 15 participants that the most effective way to shape the city’s growth was through the city’s Comprehensive Plan, scheduled to be updated by 2011. He guided the group on how to effectively communicate with City Council members, planning commissioners and city staff members through letters, public testimony and community organizing.

“They got into some excellent discussions about how to best plan growth in a way that creates a great community,” Schell said.

CLC County Trustee and May Valley resident Holly Greenspoon was equally enthusiastic about her experience interacting with other citizens she said shared her concerns about managing the “inevitable growth”.

“Our community faces the big challenges of trying to be smart about growth, creating more and keeping our livable neighborhoods and protecting our beautiful environment,” she said. “Since I live out in May Valley amongst acreage and rural lands, I want to make sure we keep rural lands sustainable and thriving.”

Sustainable Issaquah’s Lori Danielson, who also attended the meeting, said she wanted to learn more about how to get people engaged in volunteer community work that might encourage more residents to get involved.

Talking about the land use planning process, Danielson said it was important that community members provide input.

“I think it is important that Issaquah grow more dense in the city center, rather than sprawl outwards,” she said. “I want to be able to protect our beautiful wooded hillsides and farmland in the area from the pressure of sprawl.”

Several of the meeting’s participants said they’d return to the next Cascade Agenda Cities Program meeting, to be held at 6-9 p.m. on Dec. 10 at Eastside Fire & Rescue Headquarters on 175 Newport Way. For more information, call CLC Manager Skye Schell at 206-905-6891 or send an e-mail to skyes@cascadeland.org.