The Joint Southeast Campus Committee heard new ideas Monday for the planned expansion of the St. Paul's Catholic Center.
Other committees and neighborhood groups had expressed concern over the building's height in the original proposal, which was submitted in the fall.
Attorney Ron Trachtenberg represented the project along with other members of the development team, and said they had eliminated student housing in their new plans to take care of the problem of height.
He said builders plan to have the building's height be somewhere between Memorial Library and the adjacent Pres House.
Trachtenberg said the most relevant improvements in the new center would include a new chapel, apartments and living quarters for visiting scholars, ordained priests and priests in training.
However, the group did not submit a new official proposal, and Landgraf Construction President Mark Landgraf said it hopes to do so later this year around July or August.
Landgraf said the most recent ideas came from a compromise after input from community groups. Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, praised the work the group had done to reach that level.
""This is going to really help you with momentum in terms of the neighborhood and city officials and I presume the university folks as well,"" Verveer said.
The committee also raised the issue of a required fire lane in front of the center, which would be in the State Street Mall, a location many food carts currently occupy during the day. Trachtenberg said the issue will have to be discussed as the project develops.
""We don't want to disrupt the vendors anymore either,"" Trachtenberg said. ""They add something to the street life there.""
Landgraf said his company estimated the cost at around $25 million, and fundraising for the project would start only after an official proposal takes place and is approved by the Madison Urban Design Commission and other city committees.
""You need to have your design in front of you before you go to see your benefactors,"" Landgraf said. ""It doesn't make any sense to start that now if you don't have something in front of you.""
