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The Downtown Area Planning Committee (DAPAC) voted on Wednesday to form a subcommittee that would deal specifically with issues related to Center Street and the new hotel planned for the intersection of Shattuck Avenue.  

The subcommittee would report to the main committee in November. 

Dan Marks, planning director, and Will Harper, DAPAC chair, were opposed to the idea and said that it was immature at this point to have a subcommittee. 

The final vote on the issue was 11-7. Helen Burke, DAPAC committee member, made the motion while DAPAC member Linda Gage seconded it. 

“It makes sense to break the committee into a subcommittee. I am very strongly for it,” said DAPAC member Patti Dacey. 

“We have just under a year to give our suggestions to the City Council about the Downtown Preservation Plan and we haven’t got any real work done yet,” she said. “The subcommittee will help to start work on different sections.” 

Rob Wrenn will be facilitating the first DAPAC subcommittee meeting at which guidelines about planning parameters for Center Street and the hotel will be discussed. 

A panel on economic development was also held in which realtor John Gordon spoke about the importance of having a clean and safe downtown.  

Gordon said that in order to improve the economic vitality of the downtown area, the city would need to deal with the dirt, graffiti and behavioral problems of the homeless people.