Accessible routes for pedestrians are an ongoing debate for commercial and office retail spaces,  although the requirement for a property owner to have accessible routes from the public walking path to connecting all buildings on the site is part of the 2013 California Building Code. The question arises when a site only has a vehicular access point from the building entrance to the facility, and whether or not there should be pedestrian access.

Most property owners believe that if a concrete or asphalt path is the access point between buildings in a facility, they are not responsible for providing a pedestrian route of travel. These property owners come to the conclusion that they do not have to provide pedestrian accessibility because the property was originally built without such connections, exempting them from providing access – don’t believe this myth because these property owners are wrong. The law¹ {1991 ADA standards sections 4.1.2(1) & (2)} states that if it can be anticipated that the route between access points will be used by pedestrians, property owners must provide an accessible route.

In some situations, the investment of installing connections to public sidewalks can be done without destroying the property, reducing landscape areas or creating financial burdens on ownership². Depending on the city/county, building codes require certain amount of landscape to be maintained which makes it harder to create these access points for pedestrians. CAM Services has ADA + CASp experts and can manage all types of different situations regarding access points on a property. Call CAM at 800-576-3050 for an inspection today!