MADISON, Wis. -- The future of the Edgewater Hotel expansion project is now in limbo after a key city committee refused to approve the proposal early Tuesday morning.

After hours of meeting and taking testimony, the Landmarks Commission voted twice against granting the developer, Hammes Co., the necessary approval it needs to complete the project to add to the lakeside hotel in downtown Madison.

City Council President Tim Bruer said right now, he said he believes the project is dead. However, Bruer said that he will meet with the key players on Tuesday to see if there's some way to revive the $93 million proposal.

The Landmarks Commission met into the early-morning hours on Tuesday. A "Certificate of Appropriateness" for the Edgewater expansion plan was voted down on a 5-2 vote. The vote margin was also 5-2 against granting a variance to allow non-conforming "gross volume" in the historic neighborhood.

While Alder Bridget Maniaci, of District 2, voted twice for the project, the majority of commission members voted against the allowances, saying the project's hotel tower, which had been scaled back from its original size, is too big for the neighborhood and historic district.

Mansion Hill neighborhood activist Fred Mohs called the votes a "step in the right direction" to redesigning the proposal to remove "some of the major objections".

The Hammes Co. could now scale down its plan, drop the proposal, or appeal the Landmarks decision to the Common Council and try to overturn it with a two-thirds majority vote.

Critics of the Edgewater Hotel plan to again turn out as the project tries to gain approval from the Urban Design Commission on Wednesday night.