Medical Center’s Skybridge Ok’d Controversial Project Approved By Council, 5-1

Sacred Heart Medical Center can build a skywalk across McClellan Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues.

The Spokane City Council on Monday voted 5-1 to allow construction of the controversial skybridge linking the hospital’s parking garage to the Southside Medical Center Building.

Despite granting the request, two council members chastised hospital officials for eroding the public’s trust when it built a parking garage that blocked views in 1992.

Mayor Jack Geraghty said he doubted people would be as critical of the skywalk if it weren’t for the garage.

“A lot of the response is retroactively going after Sacred Heart for the fact of the parking garage, which did indeed present a major intrusion on people’s views,” he said. “This skywalk is not that much of an intrusion.”

The skywalk’s “impact on the view is minimal,” agreed Councilwoman Phyllis Holmes. “The greatest damage has already been done.”

Councilwoman Roberta Greene cast the lone dissenting vote, saying she wasn’t convinced the skybridge wouldn’t further erode the view.

Councilman Chris Anderson was absent.

The council reversed the Plan Commission’s earlier denial of the proposal.

In March, the commission decided the skywalk would block the views of South Hill residents and people driving north on Grand Avenue.

Before the council, hospital officials argued the skywalk was needed for the safety of patients and doctors shuttling between the buildings.

In other business, Geraghty said he recently received electronic mail from Anderson concerning his extended absence.

Geraghty said Anderson was driving movie equipment from Wallace, Idaho, to Los Angeles and wasn’t sure when he’d return to council meetings.

Anderson has missed nine consecutive meetings since June 3, when he took a job as an equipment driver on the “Dante’s Peak” movie set.

, DataTimes