A $17,000 Dumpster Ramp For The Handicapped
Patterico posts about the latest in regulatory insanity:
A reader from somewhere in Southern California writes to lament the regulatory roadblocks that are severely delaying the opening of his business:We submitted our building construction plans for the restaurant last year to the county. We had over fifty revisions including a request that the trash dumpster have an enclosure. We stated that the dumpster had a walled enclosure of six feet in height and that the dumpster was rain proof. The County stated that we must have a roof over the trash dumpster. We had the architect draw it up. The plans returned rejected.The County now rejected the dumpster enclosure because it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. They required that we build a ramp with a locking gate at the top of the ramp for any wheelchair-bound employee. We argued that the public did not have access to the enclosure and we would not ask any employees in a wheelchair to throw out the trash. The County stated that the lack of a ramp would create a barrier to hiring a handicapped person.
The additional ramp with locking gate increased construction costs by $17,000 and it will take my employees longer to throw out the trash on a daily basis.
It sounds like an urban legend. But I have known the reader personally for well over a decade.
(I have known Patterico for about a decade, and have had long serious discussions with him about ethics and related subjects, and find him to be a person of sterling integrity.)
via Overlawyered
I would tell them -- "Fuck you -- I'm going to the next city/county/state over. Kiss the tax revenue good bye."
Jim P. at March 23, 2012 6:47 AM
There are hiking huts on the tops of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. To reach them you have to climb 4,000 feet over ten miles of hiking. Some of the path is a dirt trail...and much more is scrambling over downed trees, rockscapes, and more.
A decade or so back the government tore the huts down and rebuilt them, at a cost of millions of dollars.
The huts are now wheelchair accessible.
So after you've climbed 4,000 feet of mountain, jumped your wheelchair over downed trees 4 feet off the ground, and used your Batman-style grappling hook to pull you and your chair up rock slopes...you won't be faced with the indignity of three steps leading up to the front porch, or an outhouse stall that's too narrow to navigate in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Huts_of_the_White_Mountains
Our F___ing Government.
People out to hang.
TJIC at March 23, 2012 7:56 AM
Typo:
People OUGHT to hang.
TJIC at March 23, 2012 7:56 AM
Don't sweat it, TJIC, there's plenty of people I'm out to hang.
But your post reminds me of an Edward Abbey book I read a million years ago. He didn't care if you were handicapped. You either made it into the wilderness the hard way, or you didn't make it in.
Pricklypear at March 23, 2012 8:52 AM
I saw something similar while skiing.
You could ride a gondola to the top of the skiing mountain and then ski halfway down the hill where they had wheelchair accessible bathrooms/ warming room. ???!!! Riding a wheelchair up or down the hill would have been a hell of a show any time of the year. Even a handicapped skiier would not have had a wheelchair there.
LauraGr at March 23, 2012 9:34 AM
Judgement is difficult. Rules are easy. We are vastly overpaying for government.
MarkD at March 23, 2012 9:45 AM
A guy I work with who owns a farm was planning to plant some land in Blueberries, and open it up as a "Pick-your-own" spot. Of course, this would mean that people would have to go out in the field to pick their own blueberries. Among other stupid regulations he was told he would have to comply with was a requirement that he have handicapped parking.
Not as insane as tearing down the hiking huts to add wheelchair ramps, but still...
WayneB at March 23, 2012 11:29 AM
You can't tell the city/county to go f*ck themselves, because these are Federal laws.
And even if they let you slide without compliance on the more ridiculous parts, there are scumbag lawyers out there who make their living suing business owners over ADA 'discrepancies'
So 99% of lawyers give the other 1% a bad name.
DrCos at March 23, 2012 3:53 PM
It never ends.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at March 23, 2012 3:58 PM
That this BS hasn't come up, large and in public, before tells me it is a state or local reg; nothing federal.
In that case he can tell them GFO and get away with it.
Jim P. at March 23, 2012 11:43 PM
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