Members of the Madison Downtown Coordinating Committee worked to improve the proposed plans to develop the city’s downtown area at the committee’s meeting Thursday.
Paul Muench, spokesperson from Urban Land Interests, a real estate development firm, raised some concerns regarding the proposed plan’s ability to attract downtown businesses and to accommodate the needs of property owners.
“We have been monitoring the downtown plan,” Muench said. “We try to anticipate and suggest to the city anything we see in the plan that might have an impact on the feasibility of development of properties.”
Muench added that ULI mainly specialized in developments in new downtown projects and that its customers are mainly downtown employers. He said he believed the “step-back” design suggested in the proposal, a building design in which the walls have step-like recessions, was not necessary and would lower the flexibility of downtown space use.
He said that downtown Madison already has a low height limit on buildings and that there is already sufficient sunlight.
“Having [the step-back structure] would take away precious buildable area,” he said.
Other than the concern about the proposed step-back building designs, Muench also said he was worried about the lack of sites available for future commercial development. He said many of the designated areas for development outlined in the plan are too small. He added it is important to have enough space, especially for parking, as that would be one of the biggest concerns for many of his customers.
“If we are going to bring parking as an amenity to bring people downtown, we can’t have parking on small sites to fit employees,” Muench said.
In response to Muench’s concerns, committee members and city staff said other groups had brought up the concerns as well and said there had been some misunderstanding in the proposed maps.
Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, said the designated areas shown on the map are not the only areas that would be available for future commercial use.
Downtown Plan Project Manager Bill Fruhling said the step-back design was proposed to be used very minimally in the plan. He said that more clarifications would be needed to avoid confusions about zoning codes on the map.
Muench suggested the committee bring more flexibility to the plan and make stronger clarifications on the details of the proposal.
“As real estate people who work downtown, there are parts of the plan that we find skeptical,” Muench said. “We are concerned that the plan would not attract business users. It’s not a developer issue. It’s not a city issue. It’s a user issue.”
Other than the discussion on the Downtown Development Plan, committee members said that the Winter Festival, an annual celebration that attracts thousands of visitors to the Capitol Square, is coming up this weekend.
According to the committee, since there has not been much snow in Madison this year, the city has installed snow machines to provide the necessary snowy atmosphere.
