The City Council unanimously approved one of the state’s most stringent laws requiring developers to accommodate residents with special physical needs.
The ordinance approved last week requires developers to make 15 percent of their new homes and rental units accessible to elderly and disabled residents.
The decree requires the homes to include level thresholds for easy entry with wheelchairs and walkers, ground-floor walk-in showers, wide doorways and other features.
“It’s very much a commonsense thing to do,”Councilman Douglas McAllister said.
Some 13 percent of city residents have a disability, and more than 11 percent are 65 or older, officials said. Developers said the new rules require builders and buyers to pay for features that most consumers don’t request.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 8, 2006. Read the original PDF.