Know The Laws When Using Disabled Parking

QUESTION: My dad has just gotten his disabled person parking license plate, and I will be doing the driving for him most of the time. I know I can park in the designated parking spaces but have heard there are other locations I also may use. Do you know what those locations are? No reservations are required. Feb. 9, 11 a.m. Will You Pass Your Next Driving Test? Agoura Hills Recreation & Event Center, 29900 Ladyface Court in Agoura Hills. Feb. 19, 2 p.m.: Music Comes Alive “Surf Tunes — Beach Boys Tribute” playing all the hits of the Beach Boys at Goebel Adult Community Center, 1385 E. Janss Road in Thousand Oaks. Betty Berry is a senior advocate for Senior Concerns. The advocates are located at the Goebel Adult Community Center, 1385 E. Janss Road in Thousand Oaks. Call (495-6250 or email betty@seniorconcerns.org. Please include your telephone number. You are invited to submit questions on senior issues.

Big cities are not the only ones to tackle disabled-parking usage issues. Hagerstown, Md., founded in 1762 and now home to about 40,000 people, requires payment at all of its meters, including those used by placard holders. Parking professionals who responded to IPI’s recent Emerging Trends in Parking Survey said by a wide margin (62 percent) that free placards for disabled drivers should become a thing of the past. Nearly half (49 percent) said the parking industry should work more closely with state departments of motor vehicles and other agencies to make placards more difficult to obtain and use fraudulently. Donald Shoup, PhD, recently retired from University of California, Los Angeles, has written about other jurisdictions opting to charge for disabled parking, including Arlington County, Va. He has also cited Michigan and Illinois as variations on charging all disabled-parking placard holders. Those states adopted a two-tier system based on the disabled person’s level of mobility impairment. Those with severe limitations park free, while the rest pay. Have you addressed disabled parking abuse? Found success or encountered challenges with permits? IPI is working on this issue and wants to hear what you’ve done and your concerns, thoughts, and ideas. Please email Helen Sullivan at sullivan@parking.org and use ADA Abuse as the subject line. Mark Wright is a freelance writer. He can be reached at mark@wrightscontent.com.

When a request for accommodation is considered to be unreasonable or impossible, the landlord should attempt to negotiate an alternative accommodation. In the case of parking, if the resident can wait and is willing to do so, he or she can be put on the waiting list for parking (ahead of any non-disability-related parking request). If he or she cannot wait for the next available space which would suit his or her needs, the resident should be offered an opportunity to terminate the tenancy without penalty. Residents often think that they should be able to use public ADA parking spaces on a regular basis. However, such spaces must be available on a first come, first served basis for members of the public who come to the property to transact business. They can’t be assigned to anyone, but as outlined above, it is likely not legal to tow a resident out of such a space if he/she has a valid disabled placard or license plate. Instead, offer an opportunity for a reasonable accommodation as described above. It is important that there be written documentation of such interactions.

If you don’t already have forms designed to address requests for assignment of parking based on disability, KTS has a complete packet of policies, procedures and forms for dealing with both disability accommodation and modification requests. KTS can also recommend Certified Access Specialists who can perform an evaluation of properties throughout the state for ADA and other compliance issues. Kimball, Tirey & St. John LLP is a full service real estate law firm representing residential and commercial property owners and managers. This article is for general information purposes only. While KTS provides clients with information on legislative changes, our courtesy notifications are not meant to be exhaustive and do not take the place of legislative services or membership in trade associations. Our legal alerts are provided on selected topics and should not be relied upon as a complete report of all new changes of local, state, and federal laws affecting property owners and managers. Laws may have changed since this article was published. Before acting, be sure to receive legal advice from our office. For past Legal Alerts, Questions & Answers and Legal Articles, please consult the resource section of our website.

Once you receive your placard, you can start parking in handicapped spots. In some states, such as New York, the DMV doesn’t issue the handicapped placard. Instead, you bring your application form to the office of the city clerk. Can I use my handicap placard in someone else’s car? Yes. As long as you are always either a driver or passenger in the other person’s car, you’re allowed to use your handicap placard in a vehicle you don’t own or even drive. This holds true for rental cars as well. That’s one advantage of having a handicap placard rather than handicap license plates; you can move a placard freely from one vehicle to the next. Can someone else use my handicap placard? It’s illegal to use someone else’s handicap placard if they are not in the vehicle with you, so you can’t give your handicap placard to someone else to use. If law enforcement catches you improperly using a handicap placard that isn’t yours to park in a handicapped space, a police officer could charge you with an infraction or a misdemeanor. Can I use my handicap placard in another state?