New ADA Rules Now In Effect for Commercial Renovation and New Construction

CHICAGO, March 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --New Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations originally announced in 2010 officially took effect on March 15. Property owners across the country will now be required to meet these expanded regulations for renovation or construction projects, or risk ADA compliance lawsuits. To help owners and operators avoid the potentially millions of dollars in legal fees and civil penalties, the Jones Lang LaSalle Project and Development Services group, together with LCM Architects, a leading national architecture and design firm specializing in ADA-friendly design, offers an ADA compliance platform. This construction management program assists owners in achieving ADA compliance and is particularly focused on the needs of multi-site property portfolios.

The Jones Lang LaSalle and LCM program combines LCM's comprehensive knowledge of the new requirements and the Jones Lang LaSalle network of more than 1,000 experienced construction management professionals. It addresses multi-site and campus ADA compliance through a program that includes amassing data about the facilities, and providing portfolio-wide construction management services. The platform enables project managers to share blueprints, documentation and best practices easily across multiple locations. For a retail or hotel chain with hundreds or thousands of similar locations, the ability to generate consistently accurate real-time status reporting for every location is critical to litigation avoidance.

"Compliance is good business. In addition to avoiding litigation, being proactive in enabling access for everyone builds a positive and welcoming brand image," says Kevin Hughes, vice president of Project and Development Services. "Jones Lang LaSalle has helped hundreds of companies across all product sectors to navigate these changes to ADA regulations and successfully minimize disruption to the operations of hotels, banks and retail environments while delivering cost savings."

In this video, Hughes gives an overview of multi-site construction project management, including an ADA compliance project the firm performed on behalf of a client with more than 5,000 sites.

What's New

The ADA is a complex law that has not previously had any major refinements since it was signed into law in 1990. In the past, charges of non-compliance have led to a number of lawsuits, which have led to fines and civil penalties when plaintiffs were successful.

Properties for which construction was completed before March 15, 2012 fall under the safe harbor provision and are considered to be in compliance as long as they meet the original standard. Conversely, projects for which renovation or construction is completed after the cut-off date will be required to comply with the new rules immediately.

Some of the significant changes to existing regulations include:

In commercial buildings, the ADA applies mainly to areas open to the public. In the past, ADA lawsuits have centered mainly on retail, restaurant and hospitality chains, since these are organizations with many locations that often share similar or identical designs. A non-compliance issue at one location is likely to be repeated at many locations, greatly magnifying the potential liability.

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New ADA Rules Now In Effect for Commercial Renovation and New Construction