Bolingbrook Illinois implements Visitability
Concrete Change has sent us an article about an Illinois city that enforces building standards for the disabled. All homes are built so that someone in a wheelchair can get into any home first floor without help. This is an excellent example that we all need to bring to our communities and prove it can be done without raising the prices of homes or hampering house designs. There is no reason to lock a disabled person from a home simply because they are in a wheelchair.
The City of Bolingbrook Illinois is a Visitability example often cited as a leader in the movement.
Since 2003, Bolingbrook has mandated ALL new houses to have zero-step entrances, wide interior doors and a few other access features.
Not only do we love Bolingbrook because they mandate ALL new houses, but they’ve been a helpful example because they build almost all houses with basements. (In the early days, disability advocates often were told, "Well yes you’ve been able to produce to lots of examples down south, where they rarely build houses with basements. But up north we can’t do it because we build mostly with basements. A zero-step entrance isn’t practical over basements—too difficult, too expensive. And the snow will blow in the door." For 6 years, Bolingbrook has contradicted these statements in practice, using inexpensive processes to create zero step entrances. And there have been no moisture problems.
Recently we noticed Bolingbrook features a Visitability section on their official city website. It offers a copy of the ordinance, a city map with colored areas showing the visitable neighborhoods, and a construction drawing showing one method builders can use to create the entrance.
To see the Visitability section, go to http://www.bolingbrook.com/index.php?page_id=10. (If that doesn’t lead you to the section, go to the Bolingbrook Illinois website, click "Village Info" and then click "Visitability Information.")
QUESTION: Of the several thousand permits issued since the Visitability law went into place, how many waivers exempting the zero-step entrance have been needed because of difficult site conditions? ANSWER: Only a handful. Less than 5%!
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