'Van-accessible' space at issue

Special to The Press-Enterprise

A recent column item about who can use disabled-parking spaces designated as
"van-accessible" prompted a response from Ruthee Goldkorn, a state council
and executive board member of Californians for Disability Rights.

Goldkorn disagreed with Department of Motor Vehicles spokesman William
Gutierrez's statement that the vehicle code does not prohibit it, but a city
or county can enact an ordinance that spaces marked "van-accessible" only
can be used by vans with occupants with needs such as wheelchairs and
motorized scooters.

"Local municipalities cannot override, surpass or supplant state or federal
regulations to the detriment of the state or federal regulation," Goldkorn
wrote in an e-mail. "Such an ordinance would indeed limit the spirit, intent
and black letter of the law that created designated accessible parking and
the van-accessible spaces with an 8-foot-wide access aisle."

Goldkorn also questioned some wording in the item that a van-accessible
space is "extra wide" and thus wider than a regular disabled-parking space.
All disabled-parking spaces are required to be 18 feet by 9 feet with
additional area for an access aisle of 8 feet for a van-accessible space and
5 feet for a standard-accessible space, she wrote.
'Van-accessible' space at issue

After rechecking the vehicle code, Gutierrez said in an e-mail: "According
to section 22519, local authorities can regulate off-street parking in a
facility they own or operate as long as they put up a sign. It can get
pretty hairy and can depend on where a person is parking and who owns the
property being parked on. But I would think it would include creating an
ordinance regulating van-accessible disabled parking spaces in off-street
parking facilities those local authorities own or operate. More important
than what the vehicle code says is how the judiciary interprets it."

California Department of Justice press secretary Gareth Lacy said California
has yet to pass a law limiting use of van-accessible spaces to vehicles with
occupants with those needs.

"Issues such as limiting use of van-accessible parking can become
contentious," Lacy said. "In researching this issue, our office could not
find any case law at this point. But what about a scenario in which a city
went above and beyond federal requirements for disabled spaces?   That is,
after meeting the requirements for disabled spaces, it decided to have
additional ones for use only by those with van-accessible needs. Something
like that might wind up being litigated."

... Nervous: Asking what wine goes well with fingernails.
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