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

What an ADA Audit Means for Salem 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 Salem owners, it answers one concrete question: does this lot meet accessibility requirements today, and if not, exactly where does it fall short and what will it take to fix?

Salem's role as the state capital means a lot of public-facing parking — government-adjacent offices, medical buildings, and high-traffic retail along Lancaster Drive and Commercial Street — and that public scrutiny makes a proactive audit a smart move. This page explains what a Salem audit covers. The generic methodology is 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, not a review of old drawings. On a Salem 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 trip hazards noted.

Every finding is logged with a measurement and a photo, producing a documented record rather than a judgment call.

Common Salem Violations

A handful of failures recur on Salem lots:

• Faded markings. Wet Willamette Valley winters and hot-summer UV bleach paint fast, and a worn wheelchair symbol is a frequent — and citable — finding.
• Missing fine plates. Many Salem lots carry the federal wheelchair sign but lack Oregon's supplemental fine-amount plate, a gap that stands out on public-facing capital lots.
• Insufficient van stalls or accessible counts. Older lots striped before current ratios, and medical lots that should carry the higher 10 or 20 percent accessible share.
• Aisle problems. Access aisles too narrow, missing hatching, or blocked by cart corrals.
• Route defects. Cracks and small heaves along the path from parking to the door.

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

The Audit Report

After the field work you get a written report. A good Salem 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 the useful part: refreshing a faded symbol and adding a fine plate are quick and cheap, while regrading an over-sloped stall is a larger job. The report becomes both your work plan and your documentation that you identified and are addressing the issues — which matters if a complaint ever surfaces.

From Audit to Fix

Most Salem findings sort into restriping to a correct layout, adding or correcting signage, regrading over-sloped areas, and repairing route surface defects. Striping and signage are the fastest, cheapest fixes and resolve a large share of typical findings on their own. Grading and surface work is more involved and is often best timed with a planned repave or sealcoat, taking advantage of Salem's dry summer window.

The efficient sequence is to handle the low-cost, high-impact items first — markings, signs, hatching — then fold the heavier surface and grading work into your next maintenance cycle.

Get Your Salem Lot Audited

If you own or manage commercial property in Salem and you are unsure whether your lot is compliant, a walk-through audit removes the guesswork. Cojo Excavation & Asphalt can assess your lot against current standards, document the gaps, and lay out a prioritized plan.

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