FEB 13 1995

DJ 202-PL-865





Mr. Wilfredo Davila
Director & Chief ADA Compliance Officer
Bergen County Office on the Disabled
Administration Building
Court Plaza South
21 Main Street, West Wing, Room 113-W
Hackensack, New Jersey 07601-7000

Dear Mr. Davila:

     This is in response to your letter about a public
accommodation's responsibility to provide accessible parking
under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

     The ADA authorizes the Department of Justice to provide
technical assistance to individuals and entities that have rights
and responsibilities under the ADA. This letter provides
informal guidance to assist you in understanding the ADA. This
technical assistance, however, does not constitute a
determination by the Department of Justice of any entity's rights
or responsibilities under the ADA and is not binding on the
Department of Justice.

     In your letter you correctly noted that the Department of
Justice regulation implementing title III provides that a public
accommodation must remove architectural barriers in existing
facilities when such removal is readily achievable, i.e., easily
accomplishable and able to be carried out without much difficulty
or expense. Providing accessible parking spaces is one type of
architectural barrier removal. To the extent it is readily
achievable, barrier removal measures must comply with the ADA's
requirements for alterations, including the ADA Standards for
Accessible Design.

     Determining the application of these general rules to a
specific place of public accommodation requires a case-by-case
assessment of whether the required barrier removal is readily
achievable that takes into account the following factors:

cc: FOIA




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     1)   The nature and cost of the action;

     2)   The overall financial resources of the site or sites
involved; the number of persons employed at the site; the effect
on expenses and resources; legitimate safety requirements
necessary for safe operation, including crime prevention
measures; or any other impact of the action on the operation of
the site;

     3)   The geographic separateness, and the administrative or
fiscal relationship of the site or sites in question to any
parent corporation or entity;

     4)   If applicable, the overall financial resources of any
parent corporation or entity; the overall size of the parent
corporation or entity with respect to the number of its
employees; the number, type, and location of its facilities; and

     5)   If applicable, the type of operation or operations of
any parent corporation or entity, including the composition,
structure, and functions of the workforce of the parent
corporation or entity.

     If the public accommodation is a facility that is owned or
operated by a parent entity that conducts operations at many
different sites, the public accommodation must consider the
resources of both the local facility and the parent entity to
determine if removal of a particular barrier is "readily
achievable." The administrative and fiscal relationship between
the local facility and the parent entity must also be considered
in evaluating what resources are available for any particular act
of barrier removal.

     I hope that this information is helpful to you.

                                        Sincerely,




                                     Janet L. Blizard
                                   Supervisory Attorney

cc:  Mr. Philip C. Hochman
     Special Counsel
     Bergen County Office on the Disabled
     ADA Project
     120 Summit Avenue
     Dumont, NJ 07628


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