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With a November deadline looming, the panel of citizens charged with helping the city draft a new downtown plan will pause to take stock Wednesday. 

The Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee—DAPAC—is charged with charting the course for the city center’s future in light of UC Berkeley’s plans to add more than 800,000 square feet of new uses within expanded downtown boundaries. 

Under the terms of the settlement of a city lawsuit challenging the university’s environmental documentation for their Long Range Development Plan 2020, the city is drafting the new plan with financial support from the school. 

The panel has tasked subcommittees with working out details of proposals for plan sections dealing with historical buildings, transportation and the future of Center Street. Another subcommittee focusing on the city’s interests in development of university-owned sites downtown will present its report Wednesday. 

Matt Taecker, the city planner hired with university funds to oversee drafting of the plan, will present a draft of a general outline for the plan Wednesday, when the committee gathers at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Following the presentation, DAPAC members will discuss the schedule for drafting key plan segments, with the goal of setting general policy directions for each by mid-summer and preparing a draft plan for committee and public review in the fall. 

Members will also get their first look at plans for a major renovation of the venerable Shattuck Hotel, once the downtown’s signature landmark. 

William Howard and Robert Richmond of R2L Architects will make the presentation for BPR Properties of Palo Alto, which plans to redesign the aging hotel’s interior, reduce the number of rooms and transform the structure into upscale accommodations.