Secured accessible access?

[mtlogcabin]

City Hall has one accessible parking space in the alley at the rear of the building. You enter a lobby area where there are stairs to the basement and an elevator to the basement. When you reach the basement you access through a 45 minute rated door into city hall. The city would like to restrict access with to city employees with a electronic key pad entry system. Panic hardware is on the egress side of the door. The question has come up as to how this can be done without compromising accessibility access? The door in question is out of sight and about 40 feet away from any employees.

 

[steveray]

Accessibility for the public or employees?

 

[mtlogcabin]

Both since it is the only accessible route to the basement. It is a Title II facility and we are permitted to provide the services available down stairs to an alternate accessible location which can easily be accomplished. The only reason to provide a security lock on this door is to prevent the homeless/vagrants from accessing the basement restrooms and storage areas in that part of the building which has limited employee use during the day.

Another thought is to remove the accessible parking space and have them use the one's across the street and come through the main entrance where it is always fully staffed and they can get assistance right away.

BTW the accessible restrooms are located on the main floor. There are none in the basement restrooms

 

[Msradell]

Both since it is the only accessible route to the basement. It is a Title II facility and we are permitted to provide the services available down stairs to an alternate accessible location which can easily be accomplished. The only reason to provide a security lock on this door is to prevent the homeless/vagrants from accessing the basement restrooms and storage areas in that part of the building which has limited employee use during the day.

Another thought is to remove the accessible parking space and have them use the one's across the street and come through the main entrance where it is always fully staffed and they can get assistance right away.

BTW the accessible restrooms are located on the main floor. There are none in the basement restrooms

The solution about removing that parking space and using the one across the street and make the people and that need accessibility come to the main entrance sounds like a viable solution. The only concern I have is that it is across the street, if there any way to create parking spaces on the City Hall side of the street?

 

[mtlogcabin]

No we only have property for one parking space the remainder of the building is built on the property line and adjoin other buildings. The red brick portion is city hall parking and the accessible space on the left is also used by the adjoining property which is leased. The one on the right is the one we could relocate to our parking lot across the street. If we left the parking and accessible entrance then I think we could provide a two way communication from the lower level elevator area to an employee station to provide assistance when needed and be ADA compliant. I don't see how this works under the IBC since they do not address providing services at an alternate location.

 

[Msradell]

Trim your photo it looks like you have on street parking in front of the building. Is it a one-way street? If not have you/they considered moving the parking to the other side of the street thus being able to provide an accessible parking space directly in front of the building.

 

[ADAguy]

how wide is the front sidewalk?

 

[mtlogcabin]

8 foot on West and North sides

 

[ADAguy]

They will accommodate 4' wide ramps, Annapolis Maryland did this for shops fronting on public sidwalks.

 

[Yikes]

mtlogcabin - via the magic of Google Street view - - your primary Kalispell City Hall visitor parking lot is on the NE corner of 1st Ave. E and 2nd St. E. It appears to be the only nearby lot where you could put accessible stalls with an accessible POT that would not require a person in a wheelchair to go behind another vehicle in the parking lot. It also is the closest parking to the main / public entrance.

My suggestion is to do the visitor accessible stalls in the NE corner lot; then make the alley accessible parking "employee only" and make the door off the alley "employee entrance only".

mtlogcabin, by the way, my extended family hails from Eureka and Kalispell, and the original family homestead is now sitting under Lake Koocanusa.
My great aunt grew up in a mountain log cabin in St. Ignatius in the early 1900s.

 

[mtlogcabin]

Thanks for the suggestion I will run it by the city attorney and get her input. The north side of the parking lot is for employees and the south side for city hall customers. We would need to modify one of the 2 existing accessible parking spaces into a van accessible space and I think we will be meeting the intent of the code and ADA.

Do you still have any extended family in the area?

 

[Yikes]

Thanks for the suggestion I will run it by the city attorney and get her input. The north side of the parking lot is for employees and the south side for city hall customers. We would need to modify one of the 2 existing accessible parking spaces into a van accessible space and I think we will be meeting the intent of the code and ADA.

Do you still have any extended family in the area?

Yes, from my dad's side of the family, mostly second cousins and their in-laws. Facebook keeps us in touch.
My grandpa lived up there and worked the Great Northern railroad until a TB diagnosis sent him down to southern California in the 1930s to recuperate, thus our side of the family grew up here.

The first time I visited as a kid was in the 1970s, and my dad hadn't been there since 1949. He warned us that the family farm in Eureka would have outhouses, but not to complain that our country relatives didn't have city amenities. As we pulled up their driveway and went past their satellite antenna, I knew my dad's perception of life in Montana was quite outdated.

 

[mtlogcabin]

I knew my dad's perception of life in Montana was quite outdated.

So are others perception of Montana

 

[Yikes]

So are others perception of Montana

Except for the abominable snowmen, that exactly describes my impression of daily life at the Big Prairie Ranger Station in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. This city slicker rode there in 2018 on a flyfishing trip, and it was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen.

Speaking of Starbucks, in the early 2000s I visited friends in Missoula, where my hosts bragged that there was not a single national restaurant chain in town. My, how times have changed.