ADA Parking Lot Compliance in Portland, Oregon: 2026 Guide

ADA Parking Compliance for Portland Property Owners

Portland's commercial landscape — from the dense retail blocks of the Pearl District to the strip centers along 82nd Avenue and the office parks out toward the Lloyd District — runs on parking lots that must meet federal ADA standards and Oregon's own accessibility law. For Multnomah County property owners, accessible parking is not optional fine print. It is a legal duty under the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design and Oregon Revised Statute 447.233, and it is one of the most frequently cited issues in accessibility demand letters.

This guide gives Portland building owners, property managers, and HOAs a working overview of what compliance actually requires on the ground. For the full statewide framework, start with our Oregon ADA parking compliance pillar; this page focuses on putting those rules into a Portland context.

How Many Accessible Spaces a Portland Lot Needs

The required number of accessible spaces is driven by the total count of spaces in your lot, not by square footage or building size. The 2010 ADA Standards set the ratio at one accessible space for the first 25 spaces, scaling up from there — so a 40-space lot near a Hawthorne storefront needs two accessible spaces, while a 120-space lot at a Gateway shopping center needs five.

At least one in every six accessible spaces (rounded up) must be van-accessible. Many older Portland lots, especially pre-1991 buildings that were restriped without a fresh layout, simply do not have enough van stalls for their current count. We break the full ratio table down in our guide on how many accessible spaces your lot needs.

Stall Dimensions, Access Aisles, and Slope

The three details that trip up Portland lots most often are stall width, the access aisle, and slope.

• Standard accessible stall: at least 8 feet wide, paired with a 5-foot access aisle.
• Van-accessible stall: 8 feet wide with an 8-foot access aisle (or 11 feet wide with a 5-foot aisle), plus a 96-inch vertical clearance along the van route.
• Slope: no more than 2 percent in any direction across the stall and the access aisle.

Slope is the quiet failure point in Portland. The city's hilly west-side terrain — think the lots tucked into the slopes around Burnside and the Sylvan-Highlands area — means many parking areas were graded steeper than 2 percent to begin with, and decades of settling only make it worse. A lot that passed in 1995 can read 3 to 4 percent today. Verifying slope requires a level and a site visit, not a glance at old plans.

Signage: The Oregon Fine Plate

Every accessible space in Portland needs a vertical sign carrying the International Symbol of Accessibility, mounted so the bottom of the sign sits at least 60 inches above the pavement. Van spaces add a "Van Accessible" plate below it.

Oregon goes a step beyond the federal baseline: state law calls for a supplemental sign stating the fine amount for unauthorized parking. A Portland lot with a correct wheelchair sign but no fine plate is still out of step with ORS 447.233. Our breakdown of ADA parking sign requirements covers the exact mounting and wording.

Surface Condition and Portland's Climate

ADA compliance is not just a layout question — it is a maintenance question, and Portland's wet climate makes that real. The metro area sees roughly 36 inches of rain a year, most of it falling between October and April, and that constant moisture cycle does two things to accessible parking.

First, it accelerates paint fade. The blue stall borders, the wheelchair symbol stencil, and the diagonal access-aisle hatching all lose contrast faster under persistent UV and rain than they would in a drier climate. A faded symbol can itself be treated as a violation. Second, freeze-thaw movement during cold snaps opens cracks and creates trip hazards along accessible routes. Cracks wider than half an inch and abrupt level changes over a quarter inch in an accessible space or route are compliance problems, not just cosmetic ones.

For Portland owners, the practical takeaway is to inspect accessible markings every year — ideally each spring after the wet season — and re-stripe before the symbols drop below clear visibility.

When Repaving Triggers Upgrades

Routine maintenance — sealcoating, crack filling, pothole patching, refreshing existing lines — does not trigger new ADA obligations, though you can never make a lot less accessible than it already is. A full repave, regrade, or lot expansion is an "alteration," and that does trigger the duty to bring the path of travel up to current standards to the maximum extent feasible. If you are planning a repave at a Portland property, treat it as the moment to fix counts, aisles, and slopes all at once rather than restriping the old non-compliant layout back on.

Getting Compliant in Portland

Bringing a Multnomah County lot into compliance usually combines restriping to a correct layout, adding or relocating signage with the Oregon fine plate, regrading any over-sloped accessible areas, and repairing surface defects along accessible routes. The right sequence depends on what your lot actually measures today, which is why a site survey beats any checklist.

Cojo Excavation & Asphalt works on commercial lots throughout the Portland metro and the I-5 corridor. We can assess your current layout, flag the gaps, and lay out a compliant plan. To see how the markings come together, review our Portland parking lot striping guide, learn about our professional striping services, or request a free quote.