ADA Parking Compliance Audit in Bend, Oregon: What to Expect

What an ADA Audit Means for Bend Property Owners

An ADA parking compliance audit is a measured, on-site inspection of your lot against the 2010 ADA Standards and Oregon's ORS 447.233. For Bend owners, it answers a single concrete question: does this lot meet accessibility requirements today, and if not, where exactly does it fall short and what will the fix involve?

Bend's rapid commercial growth and harsh high-desert climate make a proactive audit especially valuable — lots here change condition fast between seasons, and a layout that passed last summer can drift out of compliance after one freeze-thaw winter. This page explains what a Bend audit covers. The generic methodology lives in our guide to the ADA compliance audit process; the Oregon ADA parking compliance pillar covers the rules being checked.

What Gets Measured

An audit is field work with a tape and a level, ideally done on dry, snow-free pavement so the underlying conditions are visible. On a Bend lot, the auditor measures and documents:

• Accessible space count against the lot total.
• Van-accessible ratio — at least one in six.
• Stall and aisle widths — 8-foot stalls, 5-foot car aisles, 8-foot van aisles.
• Slope — checked with a digital level across each accessible stall and aisle, flagging anything over 2 percent.
• Signage — the wheelchair sign at 60 inches to the bottom, the "Van Accessible" plate, and Oregon's required fine plate.
• Ground markings — the painted symbol, blue borders, and access-aisle hatching, including whether they've faded out.
• The accessible route — the continuous path from stalls to entrance, with curb ramps, level changes, and freeze-thaw trip hazards noted.

Each finding is logged with a measurement and a photo, giving you a documented record rather than an opinion.

Common Bend Violations

A few failures recur on Bend lots, shaped by the climate:

• Faded markings. High-elevation UV and winter sanding wear paint fast, and a worn wheelchair symbol is a frequent, citable finding.
• Freeze-thaw route damage. Wide cracks and heaved sections along accessible routes that open over a single winter.
• Missing fine plates. Many Bend lots carry the federal wheelchair sign but lack Oregon's supplemental fine-amount plate.
• Snow-management barriers. Plow berms and sand piles ending up in access aisles.
• Slope and count gaps. Over-sloped stalls on graded lots, and too few van or accessible stalls on older or fast-built lots.

Our common ADA parking violations checklist walks through these so you can flag the obvious ones early.

The Audit Report

After the field work you receive a written report. A good Bend report lists each deficiency with its measurement and photo, cites the standard it fails, and ranks the fixes by priority and effort. That ranking is especially useful in Bend, where surface and grading fixes have to be timed around a short construction season while striping and signage can be slotted in more flexibly. The report also serves as documentation that you identified and are addressing the issues — useful if a complaint surfaces later.

From Audit to Fix

Most Bend findings sort into restriping to a correct layout, adding or correcting signage, regrading over-sloped areas, and repairing the freeze-thaw damage that accumulates on accessible routes. Striping and signage are the fastest, cheapest fixes and clear a large share of typical findings. Grading and surface work is heavier and, in Bend, has to be planned tightly into the summer window — which makes an early-season audit the smart move, so the fixes can be scheduled before the season fills up.

The efficient path is to handle low-cost, high-impact items first — markings, signs, hatching — then fold surface and grading work into a planned summer repave or sealcoat.

Get Your Bend Lot Audited

If you own or manage commercial property in Bend or Redmond and you are unsure your lot is compliant, a walk-through audit removes the guesswork — and timing it early in the season gives you room to fix what it finds. Cojo Excavation & Asphalt can assess your lot against current standards, document the gaps, and lay out a prioritized plan.

See our Bend parking lot striping guide, explore our professional striping services, or request a free quote to schedule a site visit.