With the former Weyerhaeuser Corp. sawmill property in hand, the Coquille Indian Tribe on Thursday night began the process of planning what to build there. The tribe opened a crowded forum to ask locals whether they prefer retail stores or interpretive centers, expansive bay views or densely packed developments amounting to a new Bay Area neighborhood.

An overhead projection screen hung from the ceiling displayed the subject of discussion for the next two hours: the 50-acre finger of land between U.S. Highway 101 and the North Bend bayfront, once a hive of lumber cutting but now mostly a hive of weeds.

In March, the Coquille Indian Tribe purchased the abandoned sawmill and dock site from Weyerhaeuser. Eight months later, consultants hired by the tribe were beginning on the lengthy path toward finding the waterfront plot's new purpose - and starting by asking questions of more than 150 people gathered at The Mill Casino-Hotel, built from the very mill the old owners had left behind.

Before the forum on Thursday night, members of the tribe's economic arm, the Coquille Economic Development Corporation, had said little of the tribe's plans to redevelop the site.

Opening the question-and-answer session, Nicole Faghin, a Reid Middleton planner who helped redevelop another former Weyerhaeuser mill in Washington into a business park, immediately cautioned the audience not to expect shovels in the ground right away. Instead, she emphasized the need first to identify not only the opportunities but also the market for them, as well as the laws and restrictions applying to the area.

"That's why you're here tonight, to help us think that through," said Faghin. She outlined four phases CEDCO must pass through before construction begins: site assessment, concept planning (which she said can begin as early as June 2005), setting design guidelines and implementation, which she estimated to be about 18 months away.

With audience members invited to speak, their ideas for the old mill site came one after the other, ranging from the popular to the unlikely, like a factory outlet retail center or a hydroponic farm. But almost all who spoke accepted the Bay Area's movement from timber-industry powerhouse to tourist area, and their suggestions reflected that: restaurants, small storefronts, a maritime museum, extra moorage for yachts, even an art gallery.

"This is the most valuable property in the Bay Area, more than the North Spit," said Melvin Lesher, a North Bend resident. "It can make us all money," he continued, calling tourism-related businesses "the cleanest dollar we can make" on the formerly industrial site.

"I'd like to see the Indians get involved in a winery," said Geno Landrum, owner of Oregon Wine Cellars Etc. in Coos Bay, who suggested the Coquille tribe could keep a vineyard in the Powers area to produce wine to sell in North Bend.

"I like the idea of not only attracting tourists from Highway 101 but also providing uses for residents," said Caddy McKeown, a member of the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay board of directors, who proposed "a scaled-down Pike's Place Market" where fishermen could sell their catches at the dock.

Many of the suggestions shared a common theme of using shops and eateries to stimulate the street activity of the old-town districts of Bandon and Florence. When Faghin asked whether a big-box retailer such as Costco would be acceptable on the waterfront, the audience immediately blurted out, "No!" "Not there!" "Put it on Ocean Boulevard."

Any chain store with a huge footprint would destroy the ease of pedestrian access and with it the chance of creating a vital street life on the CEDCO property, one audience member warned.

"Having a community depends on a pedestrian scale," said Anne Donnelly. "One reason people are opposed to big-box stores - and I'm one of them - is the acres and acres of parking surrounding them."

The solution, she suggested, is "clustering parking, clustering buildings and creating a good, strong pedestrian corridor."

Another audience member favored making the waterfront property more tourist-friendly - so long as the development creates a gateway, not a screen, to the view of Coos Bay waterway.

"Whatever is there," said Peggy Black, "needs to be for everyone to see the water and get to the water to enjoy it."

In whatever form development takes, the site ought to reflect the Bay Area's local character, according to Mike Vaughan, a landscape designer and site planner in Coos Bay.

"Tourists are interested in seeing what the locals do, and not in a Disney way," Vaughan said.

As the forum wound down, Faghin remarked at how quickly residents' aspirations for the old sawmill site have gelled so early in the planning.

"As you understand, there's lots and lots of information to work with," she told the audience. "It's a wonderful thing when you go through the rounds of meetings and talk to people, and find out everyone is on the same page of music."

Though the Coquille tribe was not legally required to hold a public meeting on its North Bend development, Deana Scott, CEDCO's marketing and communications director, said doing so was the surest way to gain the community's good will.

"This development is something that, down the road, will be a big asset, so their input was important," Scott said today. "We felt it was important to be a good community partner."

A second public meeting on the project is likely between March and June, she added.