DEC Official Describes Implementation of ADA Consent Decree
By Carol W. LaGrasse, October 14, 2001
At the monthly meeting of the Adirondack Park Agency on October 11, DEC official Carole Fraser reported on the extensive steps being taken in the Adirondack Park to implement the consent decree that Warrensburg resident Ted Galusha and two other co-plaintiffs won in July after three years of negotiations supervised by United States District Court Judge Lawrence E. Kahn.
The Galusha group of three handicapped plaintiffs had sued the State under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to gain motorized access to the State’s Forest Preserve lands. Environmental groups who had joined as intervenors, the Adirondack Council, Adirondack Mountain Club, Residents Committee to Protect the Adirondacks, Environmental Advocates, and the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, also signed the consent order.
Ms. Fraser explained that DEC will develop a wide range of access to “wild forest” lands, some amended and some newly created. Motorized access is one of the reasons that the unit category was brought into being, she noted. She said that nineteen miles of roads are to be improved under the settlement. If such a road is not able to be upgraded for handicapped access, DEC must create another road, she said.
The DEC’s motorized access permit system had been revoked after complaints by environmentalists, which was the immediate provocation for the lawsuit in 1998. Ms. Fraser said that for roads classified as accessible under DEC’s former permit policy known as Commissioner’s Policy 3, or “CP 3,” 47 miles of roads will be made handicapped accessible, and that these are on a list that DEC now has available.
She said that DEC is working on maps that will show where the roads are to be used for motorized vehicles, where for ATV’s, and features such as where they end. APA planner John Banta, who joined in the presentation with Ms. Fraser, added that, as a result of the court directive, the State has published a preliminary list of some roads already opened and some opened by court order. All are incorporated into the settlement in addition to roads added by amendment and a certain number to be identified in the unit planning process now under way, he said. Ms. Fraser pointed out that eighteen months are allowed for the second phase.
She said that the consent decree requires that during the UMP (Unit Management Plan) process DEC use an advisory group formed from the Independent Living Council and others representing people with disabilities. DEC is in the process of putting that group together.
The agency is also developing standard language that will be part of all UMP’s. DEC is currently working with John Banta and DEC’s own legal department to implement this.
She said that the consent order requires that DEC convene a second advisory committee, also, this one a permanent committee to include the plaintiffs and others, to advise the DEC of items of interest. In fact, the consent decree requires that DEC give the committee “advance notice of the public meetings of those agencies which relate to the management of State lands in the Adirondack Forest preserve, and give the Committee an opportunity to put on the agenda of such meetings matters of particular interest to the Committee.”
She pointed out that under the settlement, DEC plans 150 capitol projects costing $5,000,000 over the next five years, from toilet facilities to road rehabilitation.
Ten coordinators are required by the consent decree, she said. New training is being put into place. APA and DEC staff are being trained according to guidelines of DEC and ADA. Guidelines for the built environment will be followed. They are using the guidelines before the Dept. of Justice for the outdoor environment. Training includes universal design standards, she said, and issues such as snow conditions require more technical training.
Ms. Fraser’s report took a more animated turn. “The reason why we’re doing this is other than the fact that the judge said that’s what you have to do,” she said. According to the record, she said, a National Park Service survey found that seven percent of visitors have disabilities. Twenty percent of the overall population has disabilities. People with disabilities have the time to spend in the outdoor environment more than people without disabilities.
She said that the definition of disabilities that are included in the access issues includes people with vision or hearing impairments. It includes the elderly person who uses a cane and needs an impervious surface on a trail.
“Picture yourself on a hot day,” she said. “The Mr. Frosty truck has come but you can’t get there.” This is what it is like for the disabled, she said.
During the discussion that followed, APA Commissioner James Townsend asked if there were two categories of roads under the settlement, roads that are open and those to remain open. She replied, “Everything’s open on the list.”
He went on to ask about the “nineteen miles” of roads. She said, “More, everything, 47 miles of roads.”
“One of the closure points on the settlement was that DEC would provide environmental protections,” Mr. Banta said. “Some are segments of roads that are closed because of environmental degradation,” he said.
Mr. Townsend raised the point that the settlement “does not directly address the unsighted and hearing impaired.” Ms. Fraser replied that some of the projects are not solely for mobility impairment.
In answer to a question from Commissioner James Frenette, she said that the permit will be free, based on a physician’s slip stating that the person is temporarily or permanently disabled. She said that the person can use it on any of the roads.
Mr. Townsend asked whether the permit specifies the type of vehicle. She answered that it will be a general permit, but that the road itself will determine this. Some roads are for general vehicle use and some for ATV use only.
Joseph Rota, the executive director of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board, recalled that a few years ago Mr. Galusha and the Forest Advisory Committee discussed taking a companion with the person who is disabled. Ms. Fraser remarked that for Camp Santanoni, non-motorized vehicle and a companion is provided for. “We have to pay a horse and carriage person and build platforms,” Ms. Fraser said.
The full consent decree and DEC’s 16 pages of tables of “Roads and Trails Open to Motor Vehicle use by People with Mobility Impairment Disabilities” are posted on the PRFA web site
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