Shawn Vestal: Larry H. Miller’s Madison Street closure plan still possible

The word on the street – the word about the street – is that Larry H. Miller plans to take another stab at closing part of Madison.

Which might surprise those who assume that the city already did, given that the dealership has blocked the street between Third and Freeway avenues for a couple of years now. The dealership has a tentlike structure there – neighborhood leaders call it the “Quonset Hut” – and under its city permit it can stay there through the end of 2017.

Officials with the auto dealership didn’t return calls this week, and no formal application for a street closure has been filed. But members of two neighborhood councils said Miller representatives have presented plans to seek the closure of Madison where the Quonset Hut now sits.

The closure would be part of a plan to turn several downtown blocks into an auto “campus.” People who have followed the process have grown frustrated by a series of shifting and conflicting messages from different parties: city staffers, city administrators and City Council members.

“I don’t really see any two entities that have been able to have good, clear communication,” said Patricia Hansen, a member of the executive committee for the Cliff-Cannon Neighborhood Council.

Representatives of the dealership might well feel the same way: jerked around. They have seemed so surprised and frustrated when their project ran into entirely foreseeable issues that one wonders what they were told on the front end.

Miller had initially planned to invest more than $1 million in pedestrian and bike paths and other streetscape improvements around its project in exchange for closing streets and alleys. Now the company has pulled back from offering to do so much, said Scott Simmons, the director of business and developer services for the city.

“They didn’t feel they were getting the support for it,” he said.

The dealership initially asked the city to vacate alleyways and a part of Madison between Third and Fourth avenues, and was planning to ask for the closure of the other block. Officials with the company had apparently come to believe that it was more or less a done deal, presumably egged on by an act-first-and-get-permission-later approach at City Hall.

Then it turned out some permission was required after all. First, the expansion ran afoul of city historic preservation laws – something you might consider foreseeable. Then neighboring businesses objected to the street-vacation request – also utterly predictable – and the City Council rejected it. It has since agreed to vacate the alleys.

Simmons has only been involved with the project since February of this year. His predecessor, Jan Quintrall, who left under a cloud, had a reputation for trying to speed through the bureaucratic thicket.

Councilman Jon Snyder said the city’s handling of the project, and of the long-term occupation of that block of Madison, has been a “mess” that grew out of the administration’s hasty approach. He said that when groups ask to close down streets for even short periods of time, they must get police and street approval and pay the city – steps that were bypassed in this case.

Simmons said the city allowed Miller to occupy that single block of Madison under a permit tied to construction – a type of permit the city has granted for other projects as well, including the Grand Hotel. Initially, the dealership wasn’t charged because the city’s intention was to create an overall agreement that balanced all costs and benefits, including the “million-plus” they planned to spend on street improvements that was “over and above” what they were required to do, he said.

The city has since charged the dealership for the obstruction permit: $45,000 for the first two years, with an estimated eventual total of $90,000.

“We’ve been very clear from the get-go,” Simmons said. “It was always the intent for the owner to provide consideration.”

Now Larry H. Miller is apparently planning to approach the city with a modified plan.

Gary Pollard, chairman of the Riverside Neighborhood Council, said the plans were presented at a meeting of his organization earlier this month. Many of Pollard’s members had concerns with the initial plan, but those were focused mostly on the effect of vacating Madison between Third and Fourth.

Pollard was optimistic that the plans can work out well for both the dealership and neighbors.

“Even though it was kind of messed up at the beginning, some good came of it,” he said. “I think in the end it’s going to be a win-win.”

Miller’s team made a presentation to the Cliff-Cannon council Tuesday night, and Hansen said she still has objections. She says the dealership presents the street closure as a fiscal necessity, but has been unable to answer her specific questions about the financial effect, among other issues.

“I can’t for the life of me understand that leaving open one block in that area is going to damage that business to the point that they’re going to lose money,” she said.

If the dealership does apply to close the block, it will again go before the City Council. Snyder, one of the council members who opposed the initial vacation request, said he’s still leery about giving up more public roadway.

“They have to present some convincing public benefit for doing that,” he said.