County Commission took step backward on inclusion, cooperation
The Sedgwick County Commission weakened its commitment to ensuring access for the disabled Wednesday, in one of two troubling actions counter to recent efforts to streamline and unify building codes and zoning appeals in the county and the city of Wichita.
County Commission Chairman Richard Ranzau and Commissioners Karl Peterjohn and Jim Howell voted to depart from the 2012 joint city-county building and trade code on four regulations that went further than the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).
Although there is a process for acquiring waivers in the code requirements regarding accessibility, that didn’t satisfy the three commissioners.
Instead, they decided that in unincorporated areas and in nine small cities in the county, commercial construction and renovation projects no longer must meet higher-than-ADA standards for van-accessible parking spaces, wheelchair-accessible counters and bars, and accessible unisex bathrooms (in which wheelchair users can be assisted by opposite-gender companions). Churches and private clubs within the county’s jurisdiction also will be newly exempted from ADA guidelines.
As David Calvert, chairman of the Wichita/Sedgwick County Access Advisory Board, said in a letter to Ranzau expressing the board’s unanimous opposition to the move: “It represents a change in the county’s philosophy of inclusion of persons with disabilities in our society to a policy of exclusion. This resolution is a step backward.”
An advisory Board of Code Standards and Appeals favored the changes on an 8-1 vote as a matter of simplifying the code, and commissioners pointed to their move as lowering costs for business.
But it introduces new complexity to the joint city-county code and undermines the whole point – which was to give businesses, developers, architects and tradespeople countywide one set of rules to follow for new construction and renovation.
Dueling rules sound like a case of bigger, more burdensome government. Aren’t conservatives supposed to be against that?
Similarly, Ranzau, Peterjohn and Howell voted Wednesday to undo the 2013 establishment of a city-county board of zoning appeals and go back to having a county-only one.
“I see no reason to split this back up,” said Commissioner Tim Norton, who voted “no” with Commissioner Dave Unruh.
Indeed, the main argument offered in favor of throwing out the hard work to consolidate the boards was that the city appointees on the joint board had too much power and perhaps a different “ideology” than non-Wichitans. That’s parochial thinking, and unproductive given how economies transcend jurisdictions.
The city and county have made great strides in recent years in seeking, if not full consolidation, opportunities to merge operations. Too bad the county is turning back time, including by rolling back guaranteed access for individuals with disabilities.
For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman
This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 7:06 PM with the headline "County Commission took step backward on inclusion, cooperation."