Plan Sends Freeway Over Scc Road Would Reinforce Idea School Isn’T Real College, Chancellor Says

Community college officials in Spokane want to be part of the information superhighway, but an eight-lane freeway across campus is not what they had in mind.

The Community Colleges of Spokane on Tuesday blasted the state’s preferred route for the north-south freeway that would erect an elevated concrete structure over the front of Spokane Community College.

The structure would parallel Greene Street, soar over an SCC parking lot, displace the campus’ 76-foot clock tower and possibly knock out the CCS district administration building on the south bank of the Spokane River.

“The ambience on campus will go to hell,” said interim chancellor Ron Bell, whose office is in the administration building. “This would reinforce a perception that this is not a real college.”

The north-south freeway, first proposed 52 years ago, may never be built because of its estimated $2.1 billion price tag over 20 years.

But Bell and the five-person board of trustees took seriously a presentation by Keith Martin, project manager with the state Department of Transportation. Martin distributed a brochure with a photo illustration showing the freeway roaring across an SCC parking lot.

“I believe, quite frankly,” Bell said, “that if students knew about this all hell would break lose.”

Martin is scheduled to make a similar presentation to SCC students and staff on Thursday.

The board’s response came 16 months after the Department of Transportation released a six-year, $3 million study that determined that the SCC route would cause the least disruption to neighbors and businesses.

“This is our preferred route,” Martin said, “but that’s not to say it couldn’t change.”

Bell and most of the board are new, saying they were never consulted on the project. They said they would support a north-south freeway provided it was located elsewhere.

Board member Tom Kneeshaw said the proposed route was costlier and noisier than alternative routes, would reduce SCC’s options for expansion and would disrupt the collegiate atmosphere for 10,000 people who work or attend school at SCC each quarter.

“There is great discomfort with this trustee and I’ll use the influence I have,” Kneeshaw said, reminding Martin that the trustees are appointed by the governor.

The preferred route would span 10 miles from Interstate 90 north across SCC, through Hillyard, around Kaiser Aluminum Corp.’s Mead Works and join U.S. Highway 395 near Wandermere Golf Course. Money for the project has never been secured.

The state study, known as an environmental impact statement, last year found that more than 500 homes and 115 businesses would be razed or moved if the freeway was built along Greene and Market streets.

This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT’S NEXT An all-campus meeting to discuss the proposed freeway will be held at 3 p.m. Thursday in SCC’s Lair Student Center.