Final vote on PCI request to close a piece of Second Avenue SE will happen Oct. 26

Strong-willed City Council member Monica Vernon had great hopes against long odds that she could use the next several months to personally lobby the doctors at Physicians' Clinic of Iowa about their insistence that the city close a portion of Second Avenue SE for their new medical clinic.

In fact, Vernon has gathered some photographs of the Springfield Clinic, which she notes is built over a city street in a city of comparable size to Cedar Rapids, Springfield, Ill.

On Wednesday, though, Vernon was dismayed to learn the PCI no longer wants to wait until next spring for the final of three City Council votes on the closing of a part of Second Avenue SE.

PCI now wants the vote to take place at the council's Oct. 26 meeting, which Mayor Ron Corbett on Wednesday said the council is prepared to do.

Corbett said the earlier thought was that the third and final council vote on the closing would require the city to immediately vacate the portion of Second Avenue SE that PCI wants and on which it will place its new medical building. But the mayor said the city now has concluded that that isn't necessary to vacate the street with the third vote, but only to note when the vacation is expected. The section of Second Avenue SE slated for closing, between 10th and 12th streets SE, still will remain open until April 1 under the new plan, the mayor said.

Vernon on Wednesday said she fully supports the PCI plan as an economic-development victory for the city. But she said she still thinks PCI can build on the property without closing the street.

“I wanted more discussion,” Vernon said. “I feel like we're settling for a field goal when we could have gotten a touchdown and two extra points.”

The PCI building plan calls for significant City Hall economic-development incentives, with the new property taxes that would not otherwise exist except for the PCI investment paying for much of the incentives' cost.

Vernon, though, said the details of the incentive package and a discussion about what the true costs of the PCI project are to the city haven't yet happened.

The PCI plan, for instance, will require the city eventually to turn a portion of Third Avenue SE into a two-way street as traffic on Second Avenue SE is diverted to Third Avenue SE and First Avenue SE at 13th Street SE.

Corbett said a detailed development agreement between the city and PCI will be part of the scheduled Oct. 26 vote on the street closure.

In the first two council votes on the street closure in late August and mid-September, the vote was 6-3 in favor of closure.

Corbett said none of the council supporters of the street closing have softened their support.

Mike Sundall, PCI's CEO, asked for the third council vote on the Second Avenue SE closing to occur Oct. 26 in a letter to the mayor and City Council dated on Tuesday.

In the letter, Sundall states that PCI's bank has informed PCI that all city approvals and “entitlements” need to be in place before the bank approves financing for the project. Sundall states that PCI anticipates using Midwest disaster bonds and “new market tax credits” in the financing.

“Both are extremely time sensitive,” he states.

PCI plans to close the portion of Second Avenue SE on April 1 to coincide with PCI's construction schedule, Sundall states.