Cedar Street stairs demolished with little fanfare, but city says they’ll be back

There aren’t a lot of ways out of Peaceful Valley. Up Main Street. Down Clark Avenue. And until recently, by climbing the Cedar Street stairs.

The concrete staircase connecting the small Spokane neighborhood below the Maple Street Bridge to Riverside Avenue has been demolished by the city during its work to install a massive stormwater basin. No forewarning was given, and the city didn’t seek a demolition permit, but Julie Happy, a spokeswoman with the city, said not to worry. The city-owned steps will be back.

“The stairs will be replaced to the condition they were,” Happy said. “They will pour concrete platforms. They preserved the railings.”

Though not a well-known or even popular route, the staircase has been at the center of controversy before.

In 2008, developer Mick McDowell proposed buying the staircase from the city for $7,500 and replacing it with a new staircase alongside condos he planned to build on the parcel just to the east, which he owns. He promised to maintain public access.

Then-Mayor Mary Verner told a group of Peaceful Valley residents at a community meeting that she didn’t support the sale.

“Why are we getting rid of a piece of property that provides connectivity?” she said, but added that she wouldn’t interfere in the city’s process looking at the proposal. An ad hoc “Friends of the Stairs” group was formed to oppose McDowell’s proposal, and the city ultimately refused his offer. That same year, with the economy in a historic plummet, McDowell’s condo plan stalled, like many others in the region.

Though McDowell resurrected his condo project last year, he said he’s currently trying to raise money to build it.

McDowell wasn’t the only one with plans for the stairs. Architect Warren Heylman owns the piece of land just west of the stairs. For years, he’s wanted to the stairs to be rebuilt into something more like Spanish Steps in Rome.

On Friday afternoon, Heylman was found looking at the battered land where city crews are working to install a 2-million gallon tank, one of the largest the city will build in its effort to stop sewage from pouring into the Spokane River.

Heylman, whose most well-known work is the Parkade parking garage, said he’d still like to see the staircase come back bigger and better.

“It should be monumental,” Heylman said. “Not necessarily … excessively wide. But monumental.”