After two years of developing and debating the State Street Design Project Plan, the Downtown Coordinating Committee put its final stamp of approval on the plan yesterday.
The plan, which has weathered challenges since its inception in 2000 and most recently felt the sting of the state financial crisis, will go before the City Council on April 9 with a few key items not yet set in stone.
\I think flexibility is very important and that we're still on a very ambitious timeline,"" said Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4.
The cost and appearance of bus shelters dominated discussion as committee members debated the differences of predesigned bus shelters and ones specially created for the project. In the end, it was decided to pursue both options until it becomes economically unfeasible to follow that path.
Committee Chair Mary Lang Sollinger said she did not feel it was fiscally responsible to budget between $150,000 to $300,000 for the shelters when it was possible to pay much less for ""off-the-shelf"" versions similiar to the ones the city is purchasing for E. Washington Avenue.
""Because of our budgetary situation, I think we really have to look at every $100,000,"" she said. ""Money is stopping us from all ends.""
Verveer said the money is necessary since the bus stops will play such a dominant role in the appearance of State Street, but he added that he was open to all options.
""These shelters will be the most visible street furniture in the project,"" he said.
The future of the first two blocks of State Street, which many on committee said they would like to see turned into some form of a pedestrian mall, was also left unclear at the meeting. City staff in attendance raised concerns over the trouble of rerouting of Madison Metro buses around a mall like the one discussed.
""The problem is doing it and accommodating the buses,"" said Larry Nelson, a city engineer. ""I can't see a way to do the 200 block.""
In response, the committee voted to simply study the possibility of creating the pedestrian mall and leave the decision up to a future design oversight committee.
In other committee action, members voted to give their unanimous approval of a resolution recommending construction of a mid-State Street parking ramp.
According to Verveer, the proposal will simply commit the City Council to support a ramp on the Buckeye parking lot, 200 block W. Gilman St., in the most general terms.
""There are clearly a number of issues that need to be dealt with with this ramp,"" he said. ""It's a comfort resolution; it puts the council on record as supportive of the development of a mid-State Street parking ramp on the current site of the Buckeye parking lot.\
