Medical mall parking concerns council members

CEDAR RAPIDS - The City Council could re-examine parking requirements in the proposed medical district, including plans for a medical mall that call for demolishing a nearly century-old church.

A standing-room-only crowd of more than 150 people filled the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art auditorium last night to voice their opinions on the forthcoming medical district.

Council members Pat Shey and Monica Vernon both said after the forum, sponsored by The Gazette and KCRG-TV9, that they would like the council to review the parking requirements for new developments in the district.

The medical district could encompass more than 50 blocks near downtown Cedar Rapids.

Vernon said a community development committee that she leads will look at zoning, street plans, preservation of local landmarks, vertical height of structures and limits on surface parking as it relates to the medical district.

She also will encourage the entire City Council to take a look at the plans for the Physicians' Clinic of Iowa medical mall parking areas.

PCI included more than 1,000 parking spaces in its site plan, as required by the city.

“We need to make sure we work fast on this,” Vernon said after the forum. “We need to make sure we have the proper guidelines for the district.”

Among the historic structures at stake is First Christian Church, 840 Third Ave. SE. Built in 1912 and eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, the building was purchased by St. Luke's Hospital, which is assembling the site for PCI.

PCI's plans call for surface parking at the site, but both Vernon and Shey said they hoped the building would not have to be demolished to make way for another parking lot.

More than a dozen people lined up at the forum and asked questions during the session.

In addition to Shey and Vernon, Cedar Rapids historian Mark Stoffer Hunter and Maura Pilcher, chairwoman of the city's Historic Preservation Commission, also addressed questions.

Stoffer Hunter and Pilcher both noted that preservation and progress aren't opposing forces and that repurposing historic buildings can attract young professionals to a community.

Proponents want the district to become an economic catalyst for the city.

Sara Shreve, 30, who moved to Cedar Rapids in June, asked whether medical facilities could really be considered as a regional attraction.

“I don't think it will be a fun and interesting place to take my 8-year-old,” she said.

Mary Kay Frary, who said she has lived in Cedar Rapids more than 50 years, wondered what city leaders had learned from demolishing what could have been a historic train depot in downtown Cedar Rapids, which was replaced by a parking ramp.

“Why not learn from history,” she said.

Others questioned what Cedar Rapids learned about runoff practices after its devastating flood in 2008 and how trees and other sustainable features would fit in the medical district.

St. Luke's Hospital, Mercy Medical Center, PCI and representatives of the medical district declined an invitation to participate in the forum, saying it was premature to participate because the district had not been formalized by the council.

The hospitals and PCI sent a statement, saying that each organization “has demonstrated a commitment to not only the improvement of the community's health but its economic development and historic preservation.”