Business Blocking Sidewalk Mars Hotel Expanding, But Has Yet To Obtain Necessary City Permit

A Spokane businessman is expanding his downtown hotel onto a public sidewalk without the city’s approval.

Officials know about the situation, but aren’t making a fuss about The Mars Hotel expansion.

“In all honesty, they should have gotten (a permit) beforehand,” said Irv Reed, the city’s director of planning and engineering services. “We’re in the process of doing that right now.

“Somebody just got the cart before the horse.”

The building’s co-owner, Robert Saucier, admits he doesn’t have the “revocable use permit” he needs to use the sidewalk for his hotel’s expansion at 312 W. Sprague.

He does have a building permit and a temporary obstruction permit that lets him block the sidewalk during construction, he said.

That’s all he needs right now, Saucier said. “We’re not using it yet.”

That’s not the way it works, said city attorney Jim Sloane.

“This ought to have been brought forward much earlier,” Sloane said, adding the City Council has to approve the revocable use permit before a developer can use public right of way for private purposes.

Getting the permit before construction protects the developer, Reed said. “If the council decides not to give him the permit,” Saucier would have to remove the expansion.

Saucier and partner Billy Anders are adding a glass-and-brick sidewalk cafe onto the east side of the remodeled building along Bernard Street.

The expanded cafe will jut into the sidewalk, but pedestrians will still be able to walk past. Saucier said he’ll make $100,000 worth of improvements to the sidewalk.

Attorney Steve Eugster recently brought the building’s sidewalk encroachment to the council’s attention.

“You don’t go out and just take property and try to get the rights later on,” Eugster said. “The city is allowing special benefits to people who just take advantage.

“There are all kinds of roadblocks for people who try to abide by the laws.”

Saucier said he submitted all his building plans to the city months ago. If he needed the permit beforehand, he said, the city should have told him to get one along with the other permits.

Reed said Saucier may “have gotten the understanding he doesn’t need the permit until” construction is completed.

“It could have been a miscommunication.”

Eugster said he thinks the city is being far too accommodating. He argues that Saucier should be asking for a sidewalk vacation - meaning the developer would have to buy the needed land from the city.

“He’s obtaining a vacation without going through the vacation process,” Eugster said.

Reed counters that the city would rather “rent” Saucier the space through the annual permit than sell it to him. There may one day be enough pedestrian traffic to warrant taking the sidewalk back, he said.

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