Building Code Board of Appeals Agenda and Packet 2009 09 17

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V/SIT.A.BILfTY - Lafayette, Co - General Provisions- City Council Motion -Passed 1-16-07 Revisions will include a minimum of three (3) "Visit-A-Bility" components. Specifically... 1) Bathroom modifications - Door width and sufficient space to accommodate individuals with limited mobility 2) Bathroom modifications - Blocking for Future Handrail Use - behind drywall 3) A Minimum of One (1) Zero Step Entrance into the building, with such entrance having a minimum clear width of 36" AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION - 2007 Legislation & Policy I Policy Guides - Policy Guide on Housing General Policy Position #5 Planners must encourage and implement residential development practices that result in more innovative housing options for diverse populations and which foster sustainable development. Specific Policy Position #5A: Diverse Housing. Planners need to learn strategies which create affordable and more diverse housing, such as: accessory apartments, cluster housing, elder cottages, manufactured housing, mixed-income housing, shared residences, accessory dwelling units, and single room occupancy (SRO) developments, and provide regulations allowing these strategies. Reason to Support Increased knowledge of innovative housing designs and ensuring changes in regulations that enable innovative housing will create more housing opportunities for low-income households as well as households with elderly and disabled members. Specific Policy Position #58: Accessibility and Visitability. Planners must enforce multifamily residential developers to comply with the accessibility requirements of federal and state law, including the Fair Housing Act. Planners should adopt visitability and universal design features codes for new single family construction to ensure accessibility in housing design. In addition, housing rehabilitation efforts should include accessibility modifications. Reason to Support Accessible housing increases housing opportunities and choices for the elderly and persons with physical disabilities, and enhances convenience for non-disabled persons and children. A continuing issue is the lack of accessibility in single-family detached homes. Although most multifamily housing is now required to comply with the accessibility provisions of the Fair Housing Act, single-family housing and multifamily developments less than four units are not required to be accessible or have adaptable units. Visitability is a housing design strategy to provide a basic level of accessibility for single-family housing, thus allowing people of all abilities to interact with each other. Visitability standards do not require that all features be made accessible. As the population trends toward an older demographic, visitability and universal design will increase in importance.