An artist's drawing shows the proposed $36 million Physicians Clinic of Iowa medical mall planned for the city's medical district along 10th Street SE.

The vote didn’t change.

In the second of three required votes, the City Council Tuesday night again voted 6-3 in favor of closing Second Avenue SE between 10th and 12th streets SE to make way for the Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa’s proposed new medical building.

The vote was the same as one three weeks ago, with a final vote scheduled in the spring when the clinic is ready to take over control of the street and start construction.

The doctors group has told the council it may have to build in Hiawatha if the street isn’t closed.

Council member Monica Vernon Tuesday night continued to make the case against the closure of Second Avenue SE. She said the closure would hurt the ability of others to invest in the Medical District because the street grid, altered for PCI, would not support other new development. Closing Second Avenue SE will turn 10th Street SE, on which some traffic will be diverted, into “a monster,” she said.

Vernon called the demand to close Second Avenue SE “short-term thinking” that will hurt the Medical District and the new PCI medical building in the long run.

Vernon continued, saying she still held out hope that the accomplished professionals at PCI might be willing to compromise.

“To whom much is given, much is expected,” Vernon said of PCI’s medical specialists.

A development agreement spelling out the economic-development incentives that the city will provide in exchange for PCI’s investment in a new building is still in the works. Generally speaking, the property tax that will come from the new investment will pay for the incentives, PCI and the city have said.

Council members Don Karr and Chuck Wieneke, who voted against the request to close the street, and council member Kris Gulick, who voted for it, all said they need to see the development agreement before the final vote.

Mayor Ron Corbett and council members Chuck Swore, Tom Podzimek, Justin Shields and Pat Shey voted for the street closure. Gulick, Shey and Shields all voted by telephone.