Of the 12 town-council seats, three regular seats and three alternate seats are up for election.
Seven of the nine candidates for these seats attended the forum.
Curtis Clevin, one of those candidates, is a current resident of Montrose and expressed his concern with the neighborhood's development.
"Growth is inevitable, but it has to be controlled," said Cleven, retired spacecraft systems engineer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
For Virginia Choate, who works in strategic planning for Jet Propulsion Laboratory, crowding is the issue — but so is taking an even-handed approach.
"The schools are crowded, the streets are crowded when we go to school," Choate said.
But regardless of how passionate one feels about one side of a problem, the town council must approach it on both sides, she said.
Development and design were on the mind of Bruce E. Campbell, an architect and lifelong resident of La Crescenta-Montrose.
"I want to ensure the very soft beauty of La Crescenta is preserved in the design," Campbell said.
His plan is to maintain the appearance of the area by applying rational thought to the process of development, Campbell said.
Steve Pierce is the only candidate already seated on the Town Council.
Traffic and impacted schools are among the major issues facing La Crescenta, he said.
"We are your representatives to go to [L.A. County Supervisor] Mike Antonovich and tell them what issues need to be resolved," said Pierce, who is retired. "We all come from a love of La Crescenta."
A Texan by birth, Frank Beyt said he felt like a native Californian today. During his introduction, Beyt spoke out on land-use issues, but also emphasized the elimination of graffiti in the neighborhood.
"You can't build monoliths anywhere you choose, but at the same time you can't punish an entire community for one monolith," said Beyt, who is, like Pierce, retired.
