Asheville residents allege ADA noncompliance of downtown parking deck; How bad is it?

ASHEVILLE - There's a hallway connecting the fifth level of a downtown parking deck to the public library, if you know where to look for it.

It's one of the few accessible ways to get from Harrah's Cherokee Center parking garage, formerly the Civic Center garage, to a relatively flat stretch of Haywood Street. But it closes when the library does.

And finding it locked, as Hayley Michaels said she had the misfortune of doing on her way to the U.S. Billie Jean King Cup last year, which was held at the Cherokee Center, could mean an arduous journey up sloped streets her power wheelchair has difficulty navigating, further hampered by narrow or absent sidewalks.

“Even if I was a city girl, having to navigate traffic, and a very steep hill, and the indignity of not being able to have access like I had prior to that, it was — I wouldn’t know if I should say embarrassing, or rather just degrading in general," Michaels, 32, said in August, recalling the incident. It was a corridor she had used before, and not one she expected to be closed.

“But by the time we got there, it was quite a kerfuffle. And I think it’s incredibly dangerous, not only for me in a power chair, but even more so for (someone in) a manual chair."

Downtown parking spaces are often hard to find, and when even fewer are deemed accessible to people with disabilities, it can even be hazardous, some residents argue, saying the garage is not compliant under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability.

Brad Stein, the city's risk manager, also the ADA coordinator for Title II concerns, which encompass state and local governments, said the building itself is a challenge.

“Given the date of the structure, we’re doing the best we can to provide the access," Stein told the Citizen Times. "We have spaces in there that are accessible.”

Under its current configuration, it's fair to say the garage does not meet all current ADA standards, city spokesperson Kim Miller confirmed in a Sept. 29 email. An ongoing facility assessment study intends to address some of these needs, she said.

Near the northern edge of downtown Asheville, the Harrah's Cherokee Center garage is the oldest and largest city owned parking deck. Spreading across a city block, between Vanderbilt Place and Walnut Street, the 1970s concrete structure serves the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium and the attached arena. It backs the Vanderbilt Apartments, low-income senior housing, and the Pack Memorial Library at the heart of the dense array of restaurants, bars and shops that span the city's central business district.

It's also the worst of the city's parking garages, said Marilyn Held, Michaels' mother.

"The Civic Center parking deck is in violation," Held said. "Pure and simple.”

As Michaels puts it, "We don't use that one." Not anymore.

A daily frustration

Madam Clutterbucket’s Neurodiverse Universe, on Battery Park Avenue, is a gift and antique shop easily recognizable for its rotating window display featuring a zany skeleton crew and eclectic décor. Ashley Deck, and her children, Foster and Sophia, own the shop. All of their employees are "differently abled," Deck said.

“Accommodating people is not hard," she told the Citizen Times. "That’s my whole thing in life. Access through accommodation, not exclusion.”

Michaels works at the shop, as does Amanda Levesque, 40, also a wheelchair-user, who said when her mom comes downtown in search of accessible parking, it almost always means an exhausting and lengthy hunt.

Levesque, who has lived in Asheville since 1990, said she has the advantage of knowing the ins and outs of accessible parking in downtown — but not everyone has that roadmap, she said, or the experience to navigate what can be a treacherous and complicated system.

It was Diana Gordon who took up the mantle of this fight in recent months. She first approached Madam Clutterbucket's and its employees about downtown parking issues in late spring. It was a tension they were more than familiar with.

Going door to door from downtown businesses, Gordon's petition for change gathered a few hundred names. She took her petition to City Council twice, calling for improvements such as greater signage, updates to parking spaces and more functional curb ramps.

The garage is not ADA compliant, she said. "At all. Period."

Gordon, 73, lives downtown and frequents Harrah's Cherokee Center deck, where parking has become an almost daily frustration. Parked in an accessible spot on one of the garage's upper levels, she demonstrated opening and closing the passenger and driver-side doors of her truck. Even in a spot marked as accessible, which federal regulations mandate must have an access aisle at least 5 feet wide, if swung open, her truck's door would clip the side mirrors of the vehicle beside it.

On one occasion, the garage nearing max capacity, Gordon said she parked on the roof, taking the elevator down. On her return, she found the elevator inoperable. At a loss, she hitchhiked back to the top.

With leg problems, cracked cartilage in one knee, a torn meniscus in the other, she said some days are worse than others.

"I am a person that likes to do things that help people," Gordon said.

She hoped to shine a spotlight on accessibility issues, particularly in a city reliant on tourism, one where people come to retire, part of a growing aging population. Asheville is a "prime spot" for visitors, she said, making accessible parking all the more necessary for tourists and locals alike.

To solve one problem, create another

Michaels has lived in Asheville since 2013. She was born premature, and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 18 months old. She grew up in Madison County, where Held said there were drawn out battles with the school system over needed ADA improvements.

"Hayley always says she thought Asheville would be more enlightened,” Held said. But, in many ways, they found it wasn't the case. “The terrain is difficult, but it is not a wheelchair friendly town, and I mean that in terms of attitude.”

After their experience at the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup, Held took their concerns about the corridor, and its after-hours lockup, to the city, where she said she eventually got a meeting with Stein; Garrett Male, then the city's parking services division manager; and a city engineer.

Surrounding streets are steep ― for some, unnavigable ― and there are few safe ways in and out of the garage for wheelchair users. Of the pedestrian exits, only the exit onto Vanderbilt Place and another onto Walnut Street are accessible by wheelchair. Neither of the exits onto Rankin Avenue are passable without an attendant manually lifting the arm of the barrier gate.

They "talked and talked," Held said, and when the meeting ended, she was told they would get back to her. "And that was a year and a half ago," she said.

The 600-car Harrah's garage opened in August 1976, a $1.2 million undertaking, adjoining the library.

The library is owned by Buncombe County, the garage by the city, and in response to Citizen Times questioning about the corridor, Stein, the city's risk manager, said it was a "challenge," as it's not city property.

“I empathize with people. And those are the kind of conversations we have when folks call," Stein said of the possibility of keeping the corridor open, even when the library itself is closed. "I would love to make an agreement with the county to get that access ... and that has not been able to be achieved, at this point.”

Discussions around the corridor came to a head at the onset of COVID-19, Stein said, when the county's public libraries were closed, and they realized the "barrier" to get people in and out of the deck without it.

It was March 2020 when it was announced the walkway connecting the deck and library would only open during the library's business hours.

The change was made "in the interest of public safety," following instances of vandalism and concerns around security.

Historically, the walkway had been open unpredictably. There was an understanding that the city's garage security team would lock up after traffic subsided, Buncombe County spokesperson Kassi Day said in 2020, but it was sometimes left open overnight.

By closing the hallway, Held said, “to solve one problem, they created an inaccessibility for handicapped people.”

In a September email, Day said that in 2020, the assistant county manager and then-library director discussed the corridor with the city. The county told the city that unless they provided a security officer, they would need to close the corridor in alignment with library hours, when there would be staff on-site to monitor it.

"The City opted to not provide that service," Day said.

Held said the answer is simple: hire a security guard, keep the hallway open. If nothing changes, she said, issues will continue snowballing.

“(Hayley is) always so nervous about going out and trying a new place, because she automatically assumes it’s not going to be accessible," Held said. "Because eight times out of 10, it’s not.”

What does ADA compliance really mean?

Of the garage’s 542 parking spaces, per ADA regulations, at least 11 are required to be accessible. According to Male, former parking services division manager, there are 21 accessible spaces in the Harrah's Cherokee Center garage.

On a walk through its eight levels in October, the Citizen Times found that several of the spaces marked with accessibility signs are without an access aisle, which all ADA accessible spaces are required to have.

One of every six spaces is also required to be van accessible — But Male said none are.

The garage was constructed before the ADA's adoption in 1990, Male said, and lacks the 98-inch clearance required for van-accessible parking.

The Department of Justice published revised regulations for Titles II and III in 2010. These regulations adopted revised, enforceable accessibility standards. The 2010 Standards set minimum requirements for newly designed and constructed or altered state and local government facilities, public accommodations and commercial facilities.

Stein said the city’s mission is to be “as accessible as possible,” and that for any new construction or additions to existing infrastructure, ADA compliance is key. In October 2022, the city adopted its GAP Plan, which contains an ADA transition plan intended to remove accessibility barriers in Asheville’s public rights-of-way ― streets, sidewalks, road crossings, on-street parking and greenways.

It does not encompass parking garages.

Of the city’s lack of van accessible spaces, Eva Reynolds, associate director of Asheville's office of Disability Partners, said, in that instance, it appears the city is still in compliance because of the “undue burden” represented by the structure itself, meaning improvements would cause significant difficulty or expense if carried out.

However, someone could still challenge the city on the lack of access, and the burden of proof would lie with the city.

Her office is a private, nonprofit that helps people with disabilities gain independent living skills. They also offer ADA Consulting.

Just because something is “compliant,” doesn’t mean it’s user friendly, she added.

“I try to remind people all the time that the ADA is the minimum. It’s the floor. It’s not the ceiling," Reynolds said.

Harrah’s Cherokee Center garage is a prefabricated concrete structure, which makes it particularly difficult to “retrofit,” Stein said, and the slope of the deck further complicates accessibility matters.

He said he “welcomes” feedback on the garage and other accessibility issues throughout the city.

"I empathize with people. We want to do the best we can. We’re striving for that. Sometimes, there’s just limited answers, there’s limited solutions to what people's expectations are,” Stein said.

Male said phone numbers to call for assistance are posted by the main entrance and exit signs, as well as on "out of order" signs for the elevators, when necessary. There is 24/7 staffing at city garages, he said.

Let's assess the situation

Asheville City Council approved a parking garage facility assessment in January to examine structural needs, building code compliance, accessibility and remaining useful life, and to prioritize a plan for repairs and renovations.

The city is contracting with Charlotte-based Walker Consultants for $308,595.

Three of the city's four garages are more than 30 years old; Harrah's is 47, Rankin Avenue and Wall Street garages each 35 years old. The city's newest garage, on Biltmore Avenue, opened in August 2012.

Miller, city spokesperson, said a final draft is under review by staff. The Citizen Times requested the report.

"The action taken to create the assessment is, itself, a proactive measure by the City," Miller said in September.

The issue of ADA compliance was identified by community members, she said, and staff "has and continues to meet" with concerned residents as the process progresses.

An Oct. 5 briefing to council by Capital Projects Director Jade Dundas discussed the assessment, and said addressing "immediate" needs at city parking garages is already underway, like stairwell improvements at the Wall Street garage in May.

The "high- and medium-term work" will require some additional design, said a staff memo, and will begin in the spring.

The assessment includes recommendations associated with ADA compliance, Dundas confirmed, with a total cost to implement them estimated to be $80,000, with a goal of being completed by Jan. 1.

There were recommendations across all four garages. For the Harrah's garage, which had the most needed improvements among them, it included restriping and relocating accessible parking spaces with the required access aisles and paths of travel; adjusting signage height and adding more signage; and releveling several landings.

Dundas called it "critically important" work.

What needs to change?

Michaels said she's no stranger to tangles with parking enforcement officers. She's nearly faced fines for the minutes spent getting in and out of her van while being dropped off at work. It's not just about navigating parking or garages, she said, but accessibility in general.

“I really feel like they just shoehorn us in," she said.

Standing nearby, Deck said, “There’s the law and there’s also just doing the right thing. And both of those apply.”

“I just want them to do something,” Hayley said during a later conversation in September. The leaves were on the precipice of turning and downtown streets were cluttered with tourists and shop-goers, alive with the near-constant churn of construction at the Flatiron building across the street.

It could be as simple as more spaces downtown, in garages and out, Levesque said. Ensure elevators are working. Provide other options, if not. Improve lighting. Use common sense.

Held said she felt her asks were basic: For people to feel safe, able to access whatever they want to do downtown.

“I think part of it is an attitude," Held said. "If the city stepped up, and was a good model, then other businesses would, too."

Need help or have an ADA complaint?

Contact information for the Risk Management Division, grievance forms and requests for accommodation, can be found at ashevillenc.gov/department/finance/americans-with-disabilities-act/ or call 828-259-5687.

If you believe that you or someone else was discriminated against based on a disability, you can file an ADA complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division at ada.gov/file-a-complaint/ or call the ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301.

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Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville residents allege ADA noncompliance of downtown parking deck