Accessibility
- Cynthia
- Aug 6
- 3 min read
Accessibility Cambridge Dictionary
the fact of being able to be reached or obtained easily
(of a building, etc.) the quality of being able to be entered and used by everyone, including people who use a wheelchair, people who are blind, etc.
The City Lacks an ADA Transition Plan and Accessibility Planning
Since 1992, the federal Americans with Disabilities Act in 28 C.F.R. § 35.150(d)(3) has required the city to have an ADA Transition Plan:
The plan shall, at a minimum—
(i) Identify physical obstacles in the public entity's facilities that limit the accessibility of its programs or activities to individuals with disabilities;
(ii) Describe in detail the methods that will be used to make the facilities accessible;
(iii) Specify the schedule for taking the steps necessary to achieve compliance with this section and, if the time period of the transition plan is longer than one year, identify steps that will be taken during each year of the transition period; and
(iv) Indicate the official responsible for implementation of the plan.
The City's ADA Transition "Plan" is only available for inspection at city offices, where I was able to view it. The "Plan" takes the form of an inventory of accessibility issues exported from DACTrak and is missing legally required elements such as steps to be taken annually. For an example of a Plan, see the City of Arroyo Grande's ADA webpage.
The 2014 inventory was only partial and the database has not been updated as projects were completed. Many projects slated to be finished before 2026 are still undone, such as installing curb ramps on city sidewalks and accessible pathways and picnic tables at local parks. Per a city staffer, an updated inventory is in work, but I was not given an estimated completion date.
The City Has Undermined Accessibility
In the late 2010s, the City installed parking meters on the sidewalk along Cypress Street between Main Street and Pomeroy Avenue, turning what appears to have been an originally ADA-compliant sidewalk into an inaccessible one. The Access Board's Public Rights-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG) establish 48 inches as the minimum continuous clear width for pedestrian access routes (PROWAG R302.2) but this installation narrowed the effective width of the sidewalk to 30 inches. Since the sidewalk on the other side of the street is narrow, people using wheelchairs have no safe path of travel are forced into the street. In addition, meter heads protrude 7 inches toward the building wall, exceeding the 4-inch maximum the Access Board identifies as the protrusion limit for post-mounted objects (PROWAG R402.2, R402.3.1, R402.5.). Visually disabled people using canes to navigate the city may run into the meters due to this placement.
Five years ago, the City installed parking meters in new islands along Price Street. A person using a wheelchair cannot access these meters and there are no disabled parking spaces within the same block face. These parking islands likely violate the ADA's Title II program-accessibility mandate (28 C.F.R. § 35.130), denying people with disabilities equal access to on-street paid parking.
A Better Path Forward
It's long past time for Pismo Beach to create a full and complete ADA Transition Plan, and to take steps to actively implement it. As mayor, I'll keep accessibility front of mind in planning and practice to help ensure residents and visitors do not face barriers to accessing everything our beautiful city has to offer. Pismo Beach should become a city that works for all, including disabled people.
