Yuma City Council turns down elevator and lula amendment
Eduardo Morales
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA) – The Yuma City Council turned down an amendment requiring elevators for new multi-story buildings regardless of size.
On a three-to-three vote, the council did not pass codes requiring multi-story buildings less than three-thousand square feet to have an elevator or a lula.
The amendment would have only applied to future commercial buildings built.
Still, the council argued not many buildings met these requirements to begin with, and it would cost future building owners even more money to install.
Council member Chris Morris sent us a statement saying:
“The City Council made the appointments for the board members that make up the Building Advisory Board, and I think it’s important that us as a council, that we try to follow those recommendations provided by those professionals.”
City Council member Leslie McClendon says that while she is disappointed in the vote, she is still grateful for the improvements the board has made towards ADA compliance.
“They did their due diligence in allowing Chapter 11 to go through with a little bit more of some stipulations to approve, improve, what we need moving forward, so I’m very happy,” she says.
But Alexis Liggett, a local mother of a disabled child, says she is disappointed the amendment did not pass.
“I recognize that substantial changes are being made to improve accessibility and I’m really grateful for that, but at the same time these updates are really just kind of catching us up to barriers that shouldn’t exist today,” Ligget said.