Controversial South Madison Street block reopens
It took five years, a nasty battle with City Hall, the complete transformation of a downtown auto dealership and the demolition of two historic buildings, but a blocklong portion of South Madison Street reopened Tuesday.
Madison between Third Avenue and Freeway Avenue North has been closed to traffic since September 2013, when city officials agreed to a long-term closure for the Larry H. Miller auto dealership. At the time, the Salt Lake City-based company envisioned a six-block campus of tree-lined pedestrian boulevards in place of streets. The company paid the city $8,010 in obstruction permit fees for the closure.
In 2015, two years after it was shut to traffic and used as a parking lot for dealership employees, the Spokane City Council narrowly rejected the company’s request to close the block permanently.
Despite the rejection, the city allowed the dealership to keep Madison closed through construction. . The final phases of construction saw its Honda showroom go up, which finished in the spring, and the demolition of two historic structures, 1023 and 1027 W. Third Ave. They were constructed in 1913 and 1937, respectively.
In return for allowing the removal of the buildings, the auto dealer agreed to renovate the International Harvester Co. Truck Showroom, which was built in 1929 at 1030 W. Third Ave., and now serves as a Lexus showroom.
Such a compromise would no longer be allowed under city law, following the February passage of historic property preservation ordinance. Before that bill’s approval, developers could take down historic buildings if they renovated an adjoining historic building. Now, the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission can block the removal of an old building.
Critics of the process within and outside of City Hall place blame for the troubles surrounding the dealership on the shifting personnel in the city’s Business and Developer Services Division, namely the former division head, Jan Quintrall, who resigned in 2015, and Scott Chesney, the planning director who Quintrall forced out in 2014.