# Federal lawsuit says Columbus apartments don't meet accessibility requirements



## mark handler (Aug 21, 2015)

Federal lawsuit says Columbus apartment complexes don't meet accessibility requirements

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/08/20/Groups-file-federal-lawsuit-over-apartment-complexes.html

By Mark Ferenchik & Rita Price

The Columbus Dispatch  •  Thursday August 20, 2015 8:19 PM

Two fair-housing associations have filed a federal lawsuit against Westerville-based Preferred Living Real Estate Investments and several affiliated companies that says their Columbus apartment complexes are not as accessible to people with handicaps as federal law requires.

The lawsuit claims that the complexes do not have design elements required by the Fair Housing Amendments Act. The complexes are Palmer House and Clifton Park on the Northeast Side; Andover Park on the Far West Side; Alexander Square on the Far North Side; and Taylor House on the Northwest Side.

The suit says the complexes are “replete with accessibility problems,” including ground-floor units that do not have accessible routes to amenities and clubhouses; leasing offices with steps leading to the entrance; curbs without curb cuts; out-of-reach light switches and electrical outlets; and insufficient floor space for wheelchairs at toilets, sinks and bathtubs.

The suit was filed on Wednesday by the Central Ohio Fair Housing Association and the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center. Jim McCarthy, president and CEO of the two groups, said they did their own investigation and did not receive complaints from anyone.

The federal act requires that certain apartment complexes built after March 13, 1991 — generally, those with four or more units — be designed and built with features for people with disabilities.

Derek Mortland of the Gahanna-based Center for Disability Empowerment said accessibility violations are far too common. He said awareness and enforcement lag decades after the enactment of the Fair Housing Amendments Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and even-more-stringent state building codes.

“I’d like to see far more of these lawsuits,” said Mortland, the center’s ADA and community-outreach coordinator. “That’s probably the only way it’s going to be fixed.”

He said many developers and builders overestimate the cost of making a building accessible and adaptable from the beginning, adding that complying with accessibility standards typically adds about 1 percent to the cost of a new building.

“It’s my hope that building departments get better trained on this, so that when plans are submitted, there is awareness,” Mortland said. “They don’t make building-stretchers — you can’t go back and make extra space if it’s built out of compliance.”

Two architectural firms also were named as defendants: David L. Betz Architecture and Johnathan Barnes Architecture and Design Ltd.

Preferred Living did not return calls on Thursday.

The suit asks Preferred Living to make complexes comply with federal law and to design future buildings so they comply as well. It also seeks compensatory and punitive damages for the two fair-housing groups.

“It’s best to catch these types of properties as they’re going up,” McCarthy said. “Retrofitting is very expensive.”

Preferred Living has developed 12 apartment communities in Columbus; three more are planned.

Accessibility violations “are a huge problem,” Mortland said, and they can effectively bar people from renting or visiting. “Your housing choices are fairly limited if you have a disability.”


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## ICE (Aug 21, 2015)

> The suit says the complexes are “replete with accessibility problems,” including ground-floor units that do not have accessible routes to amenities and clubhouses; leasing offices with steps leading to the entrance; curbs without curb cuts; out-of-reach light switches and electrical outlets; and insufficient floor space for wheelchairs at toilets, sinks and bathtubs.Accessibility violations “are a huge problem,” Mortland said, and they can effectively bar people from renting or visiting. “Your housing choices are fairly limited if you have a *disability*.”


It is disingenuous to say "disability".  That is all encompassing.  A lisp to an iron lung is a disability.  What should be said is wheelchair bound.  Then people can gain the correct perspective.  They will see that tearing apart an apartment complex for the few dozen wheelchair bound individuals that might visit the place is an overboard, knee-jerk response to a mostly nonissue.

Now you folks that will say that I'm a hardhearted jerk need a reality check.  The fact of the matter is that some people got screwed and ended up in a wheelchair.  I get the idea that it must be a real ordeal to overcome.  I'm not looking to harsh your gig but hey now, you're the one that got screwed.  You are less than one percent of all of us.  You want 100% of the built environment to accommodate a wheelchair because you got screwed.  It is the tail wagging the dog.

The impact on the environment in terms of wasted materials far outweighs any benefit.  How many million yards of concrete have gone into building ramps and curb cuts?  Well maybe I shouldn't include curb cuts because of the skateboarders that really love them but gosh, look at the ramps.  How many gallons of water did it take to produce millions of water fountains that nobody ever uses?

Had there been a push to ask builders to remove barriers instead of stepping on their necks and stealing their money, things might have been different in a good way.  You have to get the people to want to help you before they will help you.  Even at the point of a gun they will fight you because you came around demanding and grabbing to much of the pie right out of the gate.  As it is nobody is helping you.  Oh you get big bathrooms and preferred parking but not because anyone is helping you.  You get those because you took them.  Nobody likes that sort of attitude.....not even you.


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## conarb (Aug 21, 2015)

Tiger:

My race car tuner is really disabled, he broke his neck in a motorcycle racing accident over 20 years ago, he walks 'slowly' with two of those metal canes with hand grips, going into his shop one can see dozens of disability violations, I can hardly turn around in his restroom. I was in his shop today and asked him what he thought of ADA?  He says his biggest concern is being sued by some imbecile in a wheelchair trying to blackmail him, I asked if any of the ADA requirements he knew of were of any benefit to him, he said: "None of it, it's all a scam to blackmail people, I won't even get one of those blue placards to hang in my car".


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## ADAguy (Aug 22, 2015)

Wha, Wha, Wha! What if the disabled were the color blue, would you deny them participation in our society?


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## MASSDRIVER (Aug 22, 2015)

ADAguy said:
			
		

> Wha, Wha, Wha! What if the disabled were the color blue, would you deny them participation in our society?


What special things would you have to do just for them to participate?

Brent.


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## ICE (Aug 22, 2015)

ADAguy said:
			
		

> Wha, Wha, Wha! What if the disabled were the color blue, would you deny them participation in our society?


I don't understand that....at least the color blue part....the participation is easy to understand.  People participate in society to a degree that is limited by their lot in life. I grew up with a few less fortunate people around me.  A blind relative and a boy with leg braces and crutches come to mind.  The blind relative came with us quite often and the boy got more than a few piggyback rides.  ADA is meant to take the place of that.  It is considered demeaning to need help with getting to the top of the bleachers.  It is somehow unseemly to lead a blind person across a busy street and chirping signals have taken over.

ADA fosters misconceptions and it's making all of us fatter.  The proliferation of ramps suggests that there are far more people in wheelchairs than the truth holds.

As more ADA compliant facilities come about people become less compassionate towards the disabled.  We are building a world that accommodates wheelchair users and they are perceived as equal to the rest of society so there is no personal help forthcoming.  There is a ramp, parking by the front door, braille signs, knee-high everything so must we do more?

There will come a time when the tide will turn.  That is just a part of the human condition.  We used to recognize the differences between men and women.  Society was clear about that.  Women were mistreated and almost considered to be property....then they were uplifted to the rank of lesser but equal.  By lesser I mean in a physical sense and their role in the workings of the world.  Women stayed at home and were the anchor of a successful family.  How often was it said that behind every great man was a woman?

Along came women's rights groups.  Now women are no longer the family anchor.  When the kids get out of school they fend for themselves and gangs have taken the place of moms.  Women fill men's jobs...policewomen, fire-women, taxi drivers and recently, Army Rangers.  What a bunch of bullshlt.  Now there is a demand from women's right groups to place women in combat.  The tide will be turning.

And so it will with ADA.  One day people are going to wonder how we got to this point.  The lawmakers will get a clue and reduce ADA regulations from 400 pages to the four that covers all that we really need.  The stupidity of it all will be apparent.  There was a time that I built a pharmacy in a major branded store.  The few thousand stores all had an existing pharmacy and this was during a major remodel.  The pharmacy included a bathroom for the employees of the pharmacy and it had to be accessible.  There had to be a ramp leading into the work space of the pharmacy.  I asked the VP of construction for the store if there were any wheelchair bound pharmacy employees in any of the stores and she said no.  Notice that the VP was a "she".  So the thousands of stores will be built with an accessible pharmacy for no reason.

By the way, I built a temporary ramp for the State inspector and took that ramp from store to store.  There you have it...the architect, VP of construction, me and the State inspector all saw this for what it was and did it anyway.


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## mark handler (Aug 22, 2015)

Tiger

Ramps are not just for persons using wheelchairs. They are for people who use walkers,  canes, couches and others with mobility problems. Wheelchair users are a very small percentage of the disabled.

Everything,  on both sides,  always get exaggerated.


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## conarb (Aug 22, 2015)

\ said:
			
		

> I don't understand that....at least the color blue part....


Tiger:

You  know what he means, substitute black for blue and he's equating  disabled people to black people to invoke the dreaded word "raycisssst".

This  is coming out in the presidential campaign with Donald Trump  challenging political correctness, his amazing pubic support from both  major parties represents the public's disgust with political  correctness, people are just sick of political correctness, like calling  morons and retards  "developmentally disabled".

We've got to get back to everyone being treated equally, regardless of their race, physical or mental condition, sex, or anything else, we have to stop giving special privileges to certain people, namely what the law calls the suspect classes, hopefully the lawsuit by 60 Asian groups against Harvard for giving special treatment to other races will be the start of getting rid of Johnson's unconstitutional Civil Rights law.


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## ADAguy (Aug 22, 2015)

Conard "gets it", Ice sort of but Mass?


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## kilitact (Aug 23, 2015)

ADAguy said:
			
		

> Conard "gets it", Ice sort of but Mass?


Will you ever "get it"?


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## conarb (Aug 23, 2015)

When it comes to enforcing fair housing laws you must not only take into consideration disability law but also racial and sexual identity law,  I came across *this video* of what's being done in Europe (be sure to look quickly at the start to see the "***** slide", children being trained to be gender neutral until they are old enough to decide for themselves what gender they want to be.  Remember, this disability stuff is civil rights law, this is incorporated into the United Nations Agenda for Bush 1's





, since he was a Yale legacy I doubt that he has ever read *H.G. Wells 1940 book* "The New World Order". Is is any coincidence that the codes enforcing all of this are called "The International Codes"?


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## mtlogcabin (Aug 24, 2015)

> What if the disabled were the color blue


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## ADAguy (Aug 24, 2015)

Thank you Conarb,

And to mt, they would "standout" even more than they do already to many and be discriminated even more.

As Mark noted above, not all disabled need wheels, or are obvious.


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## mark handler (Aug 24, 2015)

ADAguy said:
			
		

> Thank you Conarb,And to mt, they would "standout" even more than they do already to many and be discriminated even more.
> 
> As Mark noted above, not all disabled need wheels, or are obvious.


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## mtlogcabin (Aug 24, 2015)

> “Your housing choices are fairly limited if you have a disability.”


Depends on the disability

I don't have a problem with new construction being made to comply. I have a problem with the tear it out and make it comply mentality when an alternative might not meet the exact wording of the code but it is still usable.


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## mark handler (Aug 24, 2015)

mtlogcabin said:
			
		

> Depends on the disabilityI don't have a problem with new construction being made to comply. I have a problem with the tear it out and make it comply mentality when an alternative might not meet the exact wording of the code but it is still usable.


Separate but equal,  the problem is: who's definition of " what is equal".

That's where the impartial judges are supposed to come in.


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## conarb (Aug 24, 2015)

mark handler said:
			
		

> Separate but equal,  the problem is: who's definition of " what is equal".That's where the impartial judges are supposed to come in.


No, that's not the problem, the courts  have ruled in 1954 in Brown vs. Board of Education¹ that separate was inherently unequal overruling their 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson decision establishing the "separate but equal doctrine". This is why the transvestites are legally correct in demanding that Ladies and Mens rooms be abandoned and all are allowed to go into the restroom of their choice.   We have reached the dystopian point where there is no difference between women and men, and there is no difference between the able bodied and the disabled, physically or mentally.

¹ http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Separate+but+Equal+Doctrine


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## ADAguy (Aug 24, 2015)

Impartial? Based on what measurement standards?

Wish they were. Would that they could use common sense as the standard, then again what is common to them may not be common to you or me.


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## mark handler (Aug 24, 2015)

ADAguy said:
			
		

> Impartial? Based on what measurement standards?Wish they were. Would that they could use common sense as the standard, then again what is common to them may not be common to you or me.


*....supposed to come in.*


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## conarb (Aug 24, 2015)

mtlogcabin said:
			
		

>


Mountain Man, I don't know where you obtained this picture, but it appears that this guy is sitting directly on a battery, from the look on his face it also appears that the electromagnetic field from the battery is sexually stimulating him, is this really appropriate for a family friendly forum like The Building Code Forum?


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## MASSDRIVER (Aug 25, 2015)

Brent.


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## steveray (Aug 25, 2015)

Why am I always afraid to click on a link that Brent posts?


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## fatboy (Aug 25, 2015)

Once bitten, twice shy????


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## MASSDRIVER (Aug 25, 2015)

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is of the unknown. "

H. P. Lovecraft.

Brent


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## steveray (Aug 25, 2015)

I am only scared of what the IT Nazi's might say on the work PC....If I get a chance to look from home or I just signed up for tapatalk...Game On!


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## mjesse (Aug 25, 2015)

Adding an "NSFW" note to a questionable link would be helpful, and may reduce your IT anxiety.

_NSFW = Not Safe For Work_


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## MASSDRIVER (Aug 25, 2015)

mjesse said:
			
		

> Adding an "NSFW" note to a questionable link would be helpful, and may reduce your IT anxiety._NSFW = Not Safe For Work_


Where the hell is the fun in that?

Sabotage is not only fun, but healthy as well. That's science.

Brent.


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## mtlogcabin (Aug 26, 2015)

conarb said:
			
		

> Mountain Man, I don't know where you obtained this picture, but it appears that this guy is sitting directly on a battery, from the look on his face it also appears that the electromagnetic field from the battery is sexually stimulating him, is this really appropriate for a family friendly forum like The Building Code Forum?


You do not know about the Smurfs and there socialistic society that was fed to the kids in the 1980's

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smurfs


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## conarb (Aug 26, 2015)

mtlogcabin said:
			
		

> You do not know about the Smurfs and there socialistic society that was fed to the kids in the 1980'shttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smurfs


Gosh, that's news to me, I've heard the word but thought it was "Shmoo", I remember there were Shmoos in the Lil' Abner comic strip so I looked it up, I see a Shmoo is quite different than a Smurf.


Shmoos were really entertaining to the Hillbillies in the days before political correctness, so it was the Smurfs that brought us socialism and the ADA?

View attachment 1224


View attachment 1224


/monthly_2015_08/schmoo.jpg.ff0afba755f3db900ffaf74b1a72381c.jpg


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## ADAguy (Aug 26, 2015)

Kind of like Minions, cute and cuddly, unlike Smurf's and those pointed hat lawn ornaments.


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