With construction nearly underway on Yakima’s new YWCA domestic violence shelter, the city must deal with a bit of legal paperwork regarding the right-of-way on nearby 10th Street South.
How small? About 13 inches, which is the length the former St. Elizabeths Nursing School building protrudes into the road where it is proposed to be demolished.
The road is already closed.
The issue came up at a public hearing Thursday morning before city Public Hearing Examiner Gary Quillier.
City Planner Eric Crowell said the road clearance is necessary because a small portion of the former St. Elizabeth Hospital building, and several other buildings just south of it on the former Astoria Regional Medical Center site, lie within the right-of-way on 10th Street South.
The closure will cover the block between West Chestnut Avenue and West Walnut Street, an area that was already closed off to traffic when a pedestrian walkway was built between hospital buildings in the late 1990s, Crowell said.
Crowell added that the Yakima City Council approved a 25-year budget for sidewalks in 1997 in exchange for vacating the block of South 10th Street.
No written objections to the leave were received and no one spoke against the proposal.
YWCA Yakima CEO Sheri Quilty supports the leave, saying she realized it was needed when designers of a domestic violence shelter realized the west side of the existing building extended 13 inches into the roadway at 10th Street.
The 33,000-square-foot building was donated to the YWCA by Hogback Development Corp. Fundraising is underway for the 112-bed facility, and backers hope construction will begin next year and the shelter will be open by 2026.
Built in 1929, the brick building at 110 S. Ninth St. opened as St. Elizabeth Hospital School of Nursing and was most recently part of the Yakima Medical Campus in Astoria. The area hospital closed in 2020.
Crowell said an appraisal of the property is scheduled for Monday. He added that the applicants, Hogback Inc. and the YWCA, will be required to pay the full assessed value to the city as part of the street closure.
Currier continued the public hearing until 9 a.m. Aug. 8 to give city officials time to collect one more signature of approval from adjacent property owners and conduct an evaluation.
From that point, Currier will have 10 business days to release his recommendations, with final approval on the matter coming from the Yakima City Council.
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