[media-credit name=’CARA HARSHMAN/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]

After almost a year of deliberation, a city commission
approved construction Wednesday for a new Hyatt hotel to be built in downtown
Madison.

The commission also gave the final nod to an apartment building
in the Bassett neighborhood in the works since last October.

The apartment building at 451 W. Wilson St. still needs
approval from the plan commission May 5 and City Council May 6 before
construction.

In light of the lengthy process to approve the hotel, Lou
Host-Jablonski, chair of the Urban Design Commission, asked the members of the
commission “at what point can we approve it?”

Architect Jeff Kreihbel spoke to the commission, addressing
their concerns with the hotel’s facade and assuring them he heeded its comments
and changed the hotel’s front appearance.

Members of the commission voiced concern with small features
on the building, including a structure at the top of the building Hyatt
includes in all its hotels.

“I don’t think it has to get to the point of ‘great,'”
Host-Jablonski said to the commission as it wavered on a decision.

The hotel ultimately passed with a caveat that windows on
one side of the building be redesigned to match other windows.

With four Basset neighborhood residents staunchly opposed to
the new four-story apartment building proposed where South Bassett Street dead
ends at Lake Monona, the commission unanimously approved the four-story, 40-unit
apartment building.

“We are on a very tight schedule,” said Lance McGrath,
developer for the building. “We want to be built for the rental season.”

McGrath said the new plans presented Wednesday increased the
brick on the outside of the building by 50 percent and simplified the busy facade.

Rosemary Lee, a 40-year veteran resident in the Bassett neighborhood,
said she personally walked door to door in the area inquiring about the
proposed Lake Park Apartments, concluding neighbors generally supported the
project.

“We all know there is some housing in the neighborhood
that’s not so good anymore,” Lee said. “I’m looking forward to meeting new
neighbors.”

Jan Sweet opposed the apartments from the drawing board in
November 2007. He brought a petition with 45 signatures from residents
concerned the building would bring congestion to the area.

“I want this project to be drastically altered,” Sweet said,
adding the 49 parking spots the building holds will go against the neighborhood’s
wishes to decrease motor vehicle presence there.

Sweet adamantly called for commission members to acknowledge
his comments, saying the urban style of the building did not fit in with the
rest of the neighborhood.

“Why can’t you produce a building that looks like it fits in
the neighborhood?” Sweet asked.

Others were opposed because the apartments will overshadow
the historic Dowling building.

“I feel badly for the Dowling residents, but there are a lot
of people who want to live in Madison, not just residents of Dowling,” said
Catherine Hixon, a proponent of the apartments. “Things change, and that’s why
people move to the suburbs.”