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SHAKESPEARE USALOS ANGELES
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SHAKESPEARE USALOS ANGELES
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LASC
Actor's Shakespeare Academy  ACTOR'S
SPECIAL
Articles SpeechMasters
of America Sandor Klein, Artist |
News ReleaseJan.23, 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE Contact: Geoffrey Forward (310) 455-9400 LA COUNTY BUILDING AND SAFETY After six months of refusing to allow use of an electric cart to provide disabled access to the Los Angeles Shakespeare Company's (LASC) audience and toilet facilities, Los Angeles County Building and Safety, Calabasas office, has reversed its position and will allow access to be provided by electric cart. On Jan. 23, 2007, Hassan Alameddine, a supervisor with Los Angeles Building and Safety, informed Geoffrey Forward, the Artistic Director of LASC, that the use of the electric cart was allowable under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Previously, Craig Phillips, a plan checker working out of the Calabasas office, and Soheila Kalhor, his supervisor, had told Mr. Forward that they would not approve a variance to the ADA to allow the transportation of disabled persons up a driveway that is steeper than that allowed for handicap accessiblity. Use of the electric cart to transport people is necessary because the theater, located at 1909 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, is situated on hillside property with very steep slopes. Michael P. Gibbens, who is recognized in California and nationally as a leading expert/consultant on disabled accessibility compliance, wrote a variance request letter on behalf of LASC, on June 27, 2006, in which he stated that "On a site with such extreme elevation differentials, an electric vehicle to provide access to disabled patrons is both warranted and proper." Gibbens, is author of "The CalDAG 2003" (California Disabled Accessibility Guidebook), which is used by LA County Building and Safety to interpret the ADA law. He is also approved by the Sate Bar of California to provide continuing legal classes to attorneys on disabled access issues. Geoffrey Forward and his wife, Elisabeth Howard, purchased the theater property in spring of 1997 and began the long, tedious and expensive process of obtaining permits, with all the studies and reports required. Forward says he specifically asked Building and Safety about using an electric vehicle, in Dec., 2002, when they first submitted plans for a building. He was told by their first plan checker (who is no longer working there) that it would be allowable and to submit a letter stating that intent, which Forward did, on Jan 9, 2003. The letter is in the Building and Safety file on the property. Forward and Howard, who have lived for 11 years in a house just above the theater property, financed the whole project themselves, mortgaging their house four times and taking out loans on their house and the theater property for more than a million dollars. "Unnecesarry delays like this put us in jeopardy of foreclosure and losing everything," says Forward. -30- News ReleaseFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE Contact: Geoffrey Forward (310) 455-9927 LA COUNTY BUILDING AND SAFETY Los Angeles County Building and Safety, Calabasas office, will shut down a Topanga 99 seat theater and arts school rather than allow disabled persons to ride an electric vehicle from the handicap parking spot to the door of the building. On Dec. 8, 2006, Craig Phillips, a plan checker working out of the Calabasas office, told Geoffrey Forward, Artistic Director, of The Los Angeles Shakespeare Company (LASC), and The Los Angeles Shakespeare Academy (LASA), both located at 1909 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, that he (Phillips) will not approve a lawful variance to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to allow the facility to provide transportation for disabled persons up a driveway that is steeper than that allowed for handicap accessiblity. Phillips would not say why he was ignoring that part of the ADA which allows a variance under the conditions seen on the theater site. Michael P. Gibbens, who is recognized in California and nationally as a leading expert/consultant on disabled accessibility compliance, has written a variance request letter on behalf of LASC, dated June 27, 2006, in which he states that "On a site with such extreme elevation differentials, an electric vehicle to provide access to disabled patrons is both warranted and proper." Gibbens, is author of "The CalDAG 2003" (California Disabled Accessibility Guidebook), which is used by LA County Building and Safety to interpret the ADA law. He is also approved by the Sate Bar of California to provide continuing legal classes to attorneys on disabled access issues. Phillips, who is not an ADA expert, says that he does not feel "comfortable" granting the variance, because another part of the ADA states that, ideally, a disabled person should be able to go from the handicap parking space to the building without assistance. This flies in the face of Gibben's letter, which points out that the ADA allows for "Equivalent Facilitation," when the equivalent facilitation provides "substantially equivalent or greater access to and usability of the facility." Without the variance the theater and school will not be allowed to operate, depriving the community of a local theater and local after school programs in the arts. More tragically, it will also probably force Forward and his wife, Elisabeth Howard, into bankruptcy and cause them to lose both the arts facility and their house. When Phillips was asked why he would rather close down the facility than ask a disabled person to ride in an electric vehicle, he replied, he wouldn't put it that way. Geoffrey Forward and his wife, Elisabeth Howard, purchased the theater property in spring of 1997 and began the long, tedious and expensive process of obtaining permits, with all the studies and reports required. Forward says he specifically asked Building and Safety about using an electric vehicle, in Dec., 2002, when they first submitted plans for a building. He was told by their first plan checker (who is no longer working there) that it would be allowable and to submit a letter stating that intent, which Forward did, on Jan 9, 2003. The letter is in the Building and Safety file on the property. Forward and Howard, who have lived for 11 years in a house just above the theater property, financed the whole project themselves, mortgaging their house four times and taking out loans on their house and the theater property for more than a million dollars. "If they had told us ten years ago that we would not be allowed to provide transportation for disabled persons, we would not have gone forward with the project and put ourselves in such a grave financial situation," says Forward, who has a nephew who is disabled. Forward says Building and Safety told him earlier this year that he would have to submit a request for a variance to Building and Safety, which he did, in August, 2006. Building and Safety did not tell him they would not grant the variance, instead, for four months they continued to ask Forward for expensive and time consuming plans from his architect and engineer to facilitate the variance. It was only when Forward told Phillips that the building was very close to being given a Certificate of Occupancy that the plan checker said he did not feel "comfortable" approving the variance. -30-
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geofforward@shakespeare-usa.com
