PROVIDENCE — The Grove Street School will be protected from demolition for the foreseeable future after the Rhode Island Supreme Court decided Monday that it will hear the city’s appeal of a lower court order requiring that the historical school be knocked down. The court issued a stay shielding the half-destroyed building from further demolition, and sent the city and the property owners to mediation to try to work out a resolution.

“I’m feeling pretty good today,” said Deming Sherman of Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge, representing the city on the case. “If they didn’t feel that our position had merit, they wouldn’t have done this, wouldn’t have issued a stay.”

The decision comes two weeks after the conclusion of a long-running court case over the fate of the school.

The building’s owners, the Tarro family had sought to raze the building in February 2007 to create more parking for its funeral home, but demolition was halted halfway through and the Tarros were sued by the city for demolition without a permit. The city wanted the court to order the Tarro family to repair the damage to the 1901 school.

On April 10, Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini fined the building’s owners, the Tarro family, for attempting demolition without a permit, yet ordered the demolition of the school for safety reasons.

The city immediately appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which met in closed session Monday to consider taking up the case. The court issued an order yesterday morning ordering the two sides to mediation in an effort to resolve the dispute without actually going before the Supreme Court.

If mediation fails, it could be a year before the Supreme Court actually hears the case, Sherman said.

And Sherman said that this is not a case that lends itself to quick mediation.

“I’d say this is not going to be easy,” he said.

This has opened up the possibility in the minds of some that a deal could be struck, perhaps with the Tarro family selling the property to a developer interested in rehabilitating it. The Providence Preservation Society discussed trying to find a buyer for the structure at a board meeting yesterday, said society president Oliver H.L. Bennett.

“We will absolutely be engaging in outreach to see if we can serve in some capacity to find a buyer for the building, someone who could give the Tarros an alternative from the course of action they’ve embarked on,” Bennett said. “We’re going to tap all the resources at our disposal to try to find another option.”

Sherman said that he’s open to some kind of alternative solution.

“I’m hopeful to find a creative solution to this problem,” Sherman said. “I think there’s got to be a solution.”

Michael St. Pierre, the lawyer representing two of the Tarro siblings, could not be reached late yesterday afternoon for comment.

The city’s appeal was based on a rarely used measure Judge Procaccini used to compel the city to issue the demolition permit. In order to force demolition, the judge issued a writ of mandamus, a rare step used in cases where a public official is not completing the assigned duties, in cases when the official’s duties are clear — a town clerk refusing to hand over a public document, for example.

These writs are a rarity because they are meant to compel otherwise mandatory action, and are not useful in cases where an official’s discretion is involved. But Procaccini issued one here, instructing Providence Building Official Kerry Anderson to issue the demolition permit. Procaccini argued in his 40-page decision ruled that because of Anderson’s testimony during the trial, and his willingness to issue demolition permits in seemingly similar situations, there is only one acceptable avenue for Anderson to pursue: calling for the demolition of the building.

Sherman made the case that the "highly unusual" circumstances of the Grove Street case, and the rarity of a writ of mandamus, merited the time of the state’s highest court. The court agreed. Sherman said it’s possible that mediation could begin within a month.

dbarbari@projo.com