ADA 101: ADA Compliance in Evergreen Colorado
Governments and private business that serve the public are compelled to comply with the Americans for Disabilities Act (ADA). Generally this means providing access by building wheel chair usable pathways and ramps and remote door opening operations.
Governments provide access by replacing street curbs with ramps, building ramps into buildings with remote door opening service, and providing connectivity access with sidewalks. Business serving the public provide access to their establishments by providing ramps into buildings with remote door opening service.
Who pays for all this construction?
Business owners to modify their establishments and parking lots.
Taxpayers pay for government modifications at the Federal, State, County, and Municipal level. Public subdivision districts also pay out of pocket. So, for local municipal governments like Lakewood and Littleton, the taxpayers in those government communities pay fpr ADA compliance projects in those communities.
What About Evergreen?
Evergreen is not a business and has no municipal government. It is a census designated place (CDP) defined by the area code 80439. It is unincorporated. So, by law its local government is Jefferson County Government, (JEFFCO) and JEFFCO government is obligated to perform and pay for ADA compliance projects in JEFFCO. So, this means that all the taxpayers of Jefferson County pay for ADA compliance projects in non-municipal areas of JEFFCO. Including County taxpayers living in Evergreen.
So, County taxpayers living in Evergreen, together with all other County taxpayers, pay for ADA compliance projects in all unincorporated areas of JEFFCO including Evergreen. This includes municipal taxpayers who also pay some County taxes.
So, Why a special County District in Evergreen?
JEFFCO Commissioners believe that Evergreen is a wealthy community and should be treated as though it is a wealthy municipal government. That being the contrived case, the people of Evergreen should pay for ADA compliance projects required in Evergreen.
So, to make the people of Evergreen pay twice for ADA compliance projects in Evergreen, the County has contrived an instrument they call the Evergreen Local investment District (ELID). Pretending that the ADA projects are “investment” projects the County will:
- apply Evergreen residents County tax dollars
- take and apply local Evergreen Economic development and Legacy funds
- and convince voters to self tax with a sales tax.
All three sources of revenue will serve to pay for JEFFCO’s ADA compliance without depleting the County budget.
To justify the creation of a District, JEFFCO T&E has provided 17 qualitative project descriptions which:
- lack a count of ADA ramps to be installed,
- missing linear feet of sidewalk,
- missing cost estimation standards,
- and an absence of any connection between project features and an UN-calculated total cost. My calculator reads $3,360,000. This is an inflated cost of ADA compliance in Evergreen. But there is truth at evergreensafetywatch.com where the public can find a spreadsheet analysis where the projects are quantified, cost estimation standards are applied and produce a total 17 project cost of $1,985,509 and an ADA features cost of $1,435,509.
These different estimated cost values differ by $1,649,509, and the difference is important because the high value of $3,360,000, with no quantified benefits,is not true, and cannot be used to support a decision to create a District.
However, the more accurate low value of $1,985,509, with quantified benefits, does not support a decision to create a District. The high value of $3,360,000, it will be argued, requires a sales tax that only a District can provide, but the low value of $1,985,509 can be funded with a small amount of County taxes, Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), ant other grant dollars.
The high value with unquantified benefits is fraudulent,while the low value, with quantified benefits and based on the application of accurate estimation standards, is true but does not support the creation of a District.
So, ponder the information provided above, and review the spreadsheet analysis that JEFFCO T&E should have provided below, and if you are insulted by the shady work and strategy, email the three JEFFCO commissioners and tell them to reject the creation of a Distrect in Evergreen.
commish1@jeffco.us, commish2@jeffco.us, commish3@jeffco.us
The first spreadsheet below applies cost estimation standards established by the Fairfax County Parkway & Franconia-Springfield Parkway authorities.
The second spreadsheet uses the same standard for sidewalks but replaces the standard for ADA ramp installation with the JEFFCO standard ($5281) .
So, the first spreadsheet calculates the total project cost at : $1,985,509.
The second spreadsheet calculates the total project cost at : $2,047,727.
NOTES
While the words ADA Ramps appear in the project descriptions an actual count of the number of ADA ramps to be installed is not included in any description.
Some features like sidewalks and guard rails can be judged to be ADA components.
“Other” features are not related to ADA features and have no estimated costs.
FINDINGS
Provision of a count of ADA features in this spreadsheet and use of cost estimation standards provides credibility for the project cost estimates.
A precise description of ADA features in the project descriptions does not exist.
The GOOGLE Earth pictures are of low resolution, making judgment of features difficult.
CONCLUSIONS
The project descriptions are so imprecise and qualitative that they offer little informative value. So, assumptions and judgements have been inserted to build this spreadsheet.
The lack of any quantitative descriptions of critical features undermines any credibility of cost estimates. So, quantitative judgements have been inserted for this spreadsheet.
Some of the projects lack good public safety judgment. For example: EHS students need sidewalks and guard rails to get to Evergreen library, not shoulders and gutters.
The list of projects and the descriptions are worthless for making policy decisions resulting in multi-million dollar expenditures and political subdivision proposals.
COST ESTIMATION STANDARDS
Fairfax County Parkway & Franconia-Springfield Parkway
CORRIDOR STUDY
DEVELOPMENT OF COSTS FOR NON-STANDARD COMPONENTS
This section will detail the process, assumptions, and sources involved in developing a cost for each component that is not part of the VDOT Statewide Planning Level Cost Estimates spreadsheet. These items are listed in order of when they first appeared in the FCP-FSP Improvements Matrix
Guardrail GR-2(SI-10) VDOT Standard GR-2 Guardrail is listed at $16.38 per LF in the VDOT District Averages for the NOVA District.
LOW: $17 per LF
HIGH: $20.40 per LF
Curbed Sidewalk (SI-23)
Curbed sidewalk is bid as curb-abutted sidewalk with no buffer space. The cost for the curb is the same as listed underSI-05, and the cost for the 5’ sidewalk is the same as listed underSI-06.
LOW: $63 per LF
HIGH: $75.60 per LF
Construct ADA-Compliant Curb Ramp (SI-02)
Installing a new curb ramp at a corner is assumed to include the following:
constructing a CG-12 with aggregate, a detectable warning surface, a 4’ wide strip of concrete along the back of the ramp (about10 square yards), 8 linear feet of new radial CG-6, saw cutting the existing pavement (about 22 LF),demolishing and then replacing a 1’ strip of asphalt pavement along the new curb and curb ramp (about22LF), and 5 cubic yards of borrow for any grading that might be necessary behind the new ramp.The Fairfax County Unit Price Schedule lists CG-12 at $651.34 each,
concrete sidewalk as $50.36 per square yard, and borrow at $26 per CY. The VDOT District Averages for the NOVA District list saw cut at$2.50 per LF, radial CG-6 at $33.21 per LF. The cost for the detectable warning surface is the same as that shown underSI-01. The cost for new full-depth asphalt pavement is the same as that shown underSI-06. The cost for demolition of asphalt pavement is the same as that shown under SI-21.
LOW: $2350 each
HIGH: $2820 each
How The Estimation Standards Are Used
Total ADA $ = # ADA Ramps x (Hi or Lo or Avg ramp cost) + Linear feet of ADA sidewalk x (Sidewalk Cost/Linear foot)
Total ADA $ = C11(2589)+D11(75.6)
