The Spokane City Council has overturned the city hearing examiners decision to deny a proposed zone change near the Spokane County Courthouse, clearing the way for a company headed by Spokane cardiologist Marcus DeWood to build what plans have indicated could be a 10-story office and retail building there.


The company, West Central Development LLC, now plans to choose an architect within the next month and move very quickly on the project, says LuAnn Padgham-DeWood, who with her husband, Dr. Marcus DeWood, owns the company. A preliminary site plan for the project was prepared by Spokane-based Garco Construction Inc. in 2006.


We have tentative plans, but havent wrapped up the details or cost estimates for the project, she says.


The DeWoods plans, first proposed in 2006, had been on hold as the city considered their appeal of city hearing examiner Greg Smiths Nov. 30, 2007, decision. The eight lots where the proposed development would be built were zoned previously for buildings no higher than 35 feet tall, and Smiths decision to deny the zone change cited the proposed buildings greater density and intense use compared with those of surrounding sites. The hearing examiner concluded that the zone change wasnt consistent with the citys comprehensive plan and should have been considered in a review of that plan or as part of the West Central Neighborhood planning process. The developer had argued that the nearby county courthouse is on land zoned for 150-foot tall structures.


Padgham-DeWood says West Central Development plans tentatively to include a grocery store, a day care, and a public plaza in the project.


Weve worked with the West Central Neighborhood Council to identify what the neighborhood would like, she says.


The grocery store and day care were requested by the neighborhood council at public hearings held on the project last year, and the development company included those potential uses in project documents filed with the city. The city planning department, however, said that the 20,000-square-foot size the company identified for a grocery store would be larger than the city code would allow with the requested zoning.


Padgham-DeWood says plans for the property, which currently is vacant, still are preliminary. The property is about one block west of the Spokane County Courthouse and is adjacent to county property. The proposed building, which is described in the zoning application as a 10-story, 100,000-square-foot tower, would be constructed at the southwest corner of Mallon Avenue and Adams Street, with a parking garage to be built to the west of the proposed building. Two of the development sites lots face Broadway Avenue and would be used for a public plaza. The property has retaining walls on its south and east side, as it sits about 4 feet above the street. Project documents describe the proposed structure as a green building that would use mostly renewable solar energy.


Marcus DeWood received national acclaim after research findings that he and others published documented that in every recorded heart attack, one of the coronary arteries had been blocked acutely by a blood clot, and that immediate surgeries restore blood to the heart.


Contact Jeanne Gustafson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at jeanneg@spokanejournal.com.