Seattle actually briefly had the opposite of this for a while.
After the Great Fire, the city wanted to use the reconstruction as an opportunity to regrade Pioneer Square to make it less steep. Because the city only owned the land under the street (sidewalks belonged to the landowners), they just regraded the streets and left the rest up to the landowners.
This created an awkward period where landowners had sidewalks that met with an immediate wall that was supporting the street at the new level. This means pedestrians had to climb ladders to cross the street.
It also gave property owners double the store front as they kept the entrances at the original level and built a new entrances at the new street level creating a double-decker sidewalk. Many of those subterranean establishments turned into speakeasies during prohibition and can still be visited today as part of the Seattle Underground Tour.
Here's an illustration:
