[media-credit name=’Megan McCormick/The Badger Herald’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]

The city’s Downtown Coordinating Committee heard updates Thursday from various city agencies concerning land use and the future of the Downtown Plan along with a report from the Overture Center on its local economic impact.

Overture Center Planning and Analysis Director Jennifer Post Tyler opened the meeting with a presentation detailing economic and cultural benefits provided by the Overture Center.

“It documents Overture, but really, it documents the work we have done together,” Tyler said of the presentation.

The Community and Economic Impact Study noted attendance in fiscal year 2008, the last year analyzed by the study, had risen by 35 percent.

According to Tyler, nearly 1.8 million people have attended Overture Center events.

She added the Overture Center provides 1,471 equivalent jobs through its operation and accounts for $26 million to households in the greater Madison area.

Tyler said this was a great accomplishment considering the economic difficulties experienced across the nation.

As a result of the economic hardship, a trust fund established to aid with construction debts and to provide a revenue stream for the Overture Center was liquidated the same year.

Fears of city residents having to foot some of the bill, said to be nearly $27 million by city staff, were assuaged by Overture representatives who said the debt was that of the Overture Center and the Overture Center alone.

Archie Nicolette and Michael Waidelich of the city’s Planning Division presented updates on the status of Madison’s Downtown Plan and land use throughout the city.

The Downtown Plan is used to determine the layout and progression of city projects in coming years. Nicolette said the plan has a significant impact on the character of the city and is a way to organize long-range planning throughout the city.

“We’re trying to get the community a very good sense of what to expect,” Nicolette said.

Among the plans discussed were encouraging retail establishments throughout the city, but limiting the ability for non-commercial establishments to occupy ground level properties.

The pair of planners also noted the addition of a park near the current site of the Doubletree Hotel on West Johnson Street in the future, which committee members were enthusiastic to see, considering the absence of a city park in the area.