ADA Parking Compliance Audit in Lake Oswego, Oregon: What to Expect

Why Lake Oswego Property Owners Order an ADA Parking Audit

Lake Oswego is an affluent Clackamas County suburb south of Portland, with a commercial base of walkable village retail along State Street and A Avenue and high-end office parks in the Kruse Way district. Premium properties draw a discerning clientele, and a faded accessible symbol or a non-compliant stall stands out on a polished site. Beyond presentation, accessible-parking complaints are common and inexpensive to file in Oregon, and metro-area lots draw their share.

An ADA parking compliance audit is a structured, measured review of your lot against the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design and Oregon's accessible-parking law, ORS 447.233. It identifies where your lot falls short before a demand letter or a repaving permit forces the issue — and in hilly Lake Oswego, the slope reading is often the most consequential finding. This guide explains what a Lake Oswego audit covers, how it runs, and what to do with the report. The statewide rules behind every finding are in our ADA parking compliance guide for Oregon.

What a Lake Oswego ADA Audit Measures

A real audit touches every element the federal standards and ORS 447.233 regulate. Here is the checklist an inspector runs in a Clackamas County lot.

Space Counts and Van Ratio

The auditor counts total stalls and checks the accessible count against the federal table — one accessible space per 25 stalls, two for 26 to 50, three for 51 to 75, and up. At least one in six accessible spaces (rounded up) must be van-accessible. Many Lake Oswego village-retail and office lots are small, so a single missing accessible stall is the whole shortfall. Medical lots carry heavier ratios: 10 percent of stalls accessible for outpatient clinics, 20 percent for rehabilitation facilities.

Stall and Aisle Dimensions

Accessible stalls must be at least 8 feet wide. Standard stalls pair with a 5-foot access aisle; van stalls need an 8-foot aisle (or the 11-foot-stall alternative). The auditor measures widths, confirms diagonal hatching and the NO PARKING legend in each aisle, and checks that two stalls aren't sharing one undersized aisle.

Slope — The Critical Reading on Hillside Lots

Accessible stalls and aisles cannot exceed 2 percent slope in any direction, and in Lake Oswego this is the finding that matters most. Lots carved into the slopes around Oswego Lake and the surrounding ridges can fail the 2 percent limit either from settlement over the years or from being marginal at construction on a sloped site. The inspector reads slope with a digital level at multiple points across each stall and aisle — a visual estimate does not hold up, and a hillside lot can look perfectly fine while sitting just over the limit.

Signage

Each accessible stall needs a vertical sign with the International Symbol of Accessibility mounted at least 60 inches from the ground to the bottom of the sign. Van stalls add a "Van Accessible" plate, and Oregon requires a supplemental sign stating the fine for unauthorized parking.

Accessible Route and Surface

The path from the accessible stalls to the entrance must be continuous, slip-resistant, and free of abrupt level changes greater than a quarter inch. On Lake Oswego's terrain, the route itself can have running-slope problems, so the auditor checks the connection from stall to door as well as the stall.

How the Audit Process Runs in Lake Oswego

A typical engagement runs in four stages; our detailed walkthrough of how an ADA compliance audit works covers each, and here is the Lake Oswego version.

1. Scheduling and intake. You share the lot location and any original striping plans. Audits are scheduled for a dry-weather window so slope and drainage can be read accurately — essential on sloped sites.
2. On-site measurement. The inspector spends one to three hours measuring counts, widths, aisle markings, sign heights, and — with extra attention here — slopes, photographing every deficiency.
3. The findings report. You receive a written report listing each deficiency, the governing standard, a priority, and a recommended fix, separating low-cost "readily achievable" items from larger work like regrading a stall.
4. Remediation plan. The report becomes a punch list. Most Lake Oswego lots need restriping and signage corrections; slope failures may need regrading and repaving.

To pre-screen your own lot, run it against our common ADA parking violations checklist before the auditor arrives.

What Lake Oswego Audits Tend to Find

Across Clackamas County hill country, two findings stand out. Slope failures lead, because so many Lake Oswego lots sit on grade — a stall that reads just over 2 percent is a compliance violation no amount of paint can fix. Faded accessible symbols and aisle hatching are close behind, since the wet metro climate and UV wear blue traffic paint within a couple of years. Then come signs below 60 inches or missing the Oregon fine plate, undersized aisles, and short accessible counts on small lots. Restriping and signage fixes are quick; slope failures take regrading.

The lesson is to audit early and act. A demand letter or a repaving permit that triggers the alterations rule turns a modest correction into a much larger project on someone else's timeline.

From Audit to Compliant Lot

Once you have the findings, the fix is usually striping and signage work, often paired with selective regrading on these sloped sites. Cojo Excavation & Asphalt handles ADA restriping, symbol stenciling, sign installation, and the grading and asphalt repairs that bring accessible stalls back within the 2 percent limit for Lake Oswego and Clackamas County owners. For general line work, see our parking lot striping in Lake Oswego page and our professional striping services.

The figures here are general guidance under the 2010 ADA Standards and ORS 447.233; only a site-specific survey confirms what your lot needs. Request a free quote and we will assess your Lake Oswego lot and map the path to compliance.