ADA Parking Lot Striping
In Union, NJ

ADA Parking Lot Striping in Union, NJ

Nothing else in a commercial lot is specified this tightly. The number of spaces, their width, the aisle beside them, the slope of the pavement they sit on and the height of the sign above them are all set out in writing, and a lot either meets those figures or it does not. 1-800-STRIPER of Union lays out and marks accessible parking to the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, on properties from Kenilworth and Springfield through Morristown, Westfield and the Passaic County towns.

Two things make accessible striping different from ordinary stall work. The first is that a property in New Jersey answers to two accessibility rules at once, not one. The second is that most of the requirement is invisible until someone measures it — a stall that looks correct can be two inches narrow, or sit on a cross-slope steeper than the Standards allow. We measure before we mark, and we tell you what we find whether or not it is what you were hoping to hear.

How Many Accessible Spaces Your Lot Needs

The 2010 ADA Standards set the minimum number of accessible spaces from the total number of spaces in the lot. This is the table that decides it:

Total spaces in lot	Minimum accessible spaces
1 to 25	1
26 to 50	2
51 to 75	3
76 to 100	4
101 to 150	5
151 to 200	6
201 to 300	7
301 to 400	8
401 to 500	9
501 to 1,000	2 percent of total spaces
1,001 and over	20, plus 1 for each 100 over 1,000

Two details catch people out. The count is per parking facility, so a property with separate lots counts each one rather than pooling them. And where a building has multiple accessible entrances, the accessible spaces are distributed among them instead of grouped at one door.

The Township of Union adds a second calculation underneath this one. Section 170-1301 of the township code sets how many spaces your use requires in the first place — warehouse and distribution at one space per 3,000 square feet of floor area or one per employee on the largest shift, whichever is greater, retail on a sliding scale by store size, medical offices on their own ratio. That total is what the ADA table then reads from, so a change of use can move both numbers at once.

Federal ADA Standards and the New Jersey Barrier Free Subcode

A New Jersey property is subject to two accessibility regimes, and they are not the same instrument doing the same job twice.

	2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design	New Jersey Barrier Free Subcode
What it is	Federal design standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act	State subcode adopted under the New Jersey Uniform Construction Code, at NJAC 5:23-7
Technical basis	The Standards themselves	ICC/ANSI A117.1, adopted with New Jersey modifications
How it reaches you	A continuing civil-rights obligation on the property, independent of any permit	The construction-permit process, through your local construction official
When it bites	On new construction, on alterations, and as an ongoing duty to remove barriers	When you apply for a permit for new work or an alteration
Who enforces	Federal enforcement and private action	Your municipality’s construction official, under the state Department of Community Affairs

The practical rule where they overlap is the one that governs any stacked requirement: the more stringent provision applies. Satisfying the state subcode through a permit does not discharge the federal obligation, and clearing the federal minimum does not mean a permit will issue. Competitors in this market publish federal ADA content and stop there, which is why so many North Jersey lots have been restriped to the federal floor and still fail a plan review.

There is a third layer worth knowing about, and it is local. Union Township’s own section 170-2601 sets a minimum stall width of nine feet for parking spaces generally. The federal accessible car space minimum is 96 inches, which is eight feet. Because the stricter figure governs, an accessible car space in a Union Township lot is laid out at the township’s nine feet, with the federal access aisle alongside it as an addition rather than a substitute. That is the kind of detail that decides whether a restripe fits in the existing pavement or needs the layout moved.

Access Aisles and Van-Accessible Spaces

The access aisle is the striped area beside an accessible space, and it is not decoration. It is the space a wheelchair or a lift needs to deploy, and the Standards give it its own dimensions.

An access aisle is a minimum of 60 inches wide. It runs the full length of the space it serves. It has to be marked so as to discourage parking in it — which is what the diagonal hatching is for — and it cannot overlap the vehicular way. Where van spaces are angled, the aisle goes on the passenger side.

Van-accessible spaces are the requirement most often missed on an older North Jersey lot. For every six accessible spaces required, or fraction of six, at least one must be a van space. A van space is a minimum of 132 inches wide — eleven feet — unless its access aisle is itself 96 inches wide, in which case the space may be 96 inches. Two accessible spaces are also permitted to share a single access aisle between them, which is often how a tight lot gets to the required count without losing rows.

Van spaces carry a vertical requirement as well. The space, its access aisle and the vehicular route serving them all need 98 inches of clearance. On a lot under a canopy, a deck or a low soffit, that figure is the one that decides where the van space can go, and it cannot be solved with paint.

Accessible Route from Stall to Entrance

Marking the stall correctly and stopping there is the most common half-finished accessible job we are called to fix. The Standards require accessible parking to be located on the shortest accessible route to an accessible entrance — the route is part of the requirement, not a separate courtesy.

That has consequences on the pavement. The route from the access aisle to the door has to be continuous and usable, which means it cannot run behind parked cars, cannot cross a curb without a ramp, and cannot be interrupted by a wheel stop set where it blocks the path. Where the route crosses a drive aisle we mark a crossing so drivers can see it.

Surface matters too. Accessible spaces and their aisles must be at the same level, with changes in level not permitted, and the Standards allow slopes no steeper than 1:48 in any direction. That is roughly two percent, and it is tighter than most people expect. A lot that drains well can still be out of tolerance in the one bay where the accessible space sits, and we measure it rather than assume it.

Required Signage and Mounting

Pavement markings alone do not make a space compliant. Each accessible space needs an identification sign carrying the International Symbol of Accessibility, and spaces designated for vans need the words “van accessible” on the sign.

Mounting height is specified: the bottom of the sign sits a minimum of 60 inches above the finish floor or ground surface. The reason for the height is simple and worth stating — a sign lower than that disappears behind a parked vehicle, which is exactly when an enforcement officer needs to read it.

In the Township of Union, putting that sign up is a permitted activity in its own right. Article 14 of the township code requires a permit from the Construction Department before a sign is erected or altered, with an application and two sets of plans showing the proposed construction and the method of attachment, and it applies to temporary as well as permanent signs. Each sign must also display a permit number assigned by the Construction Department. We handle sign supply and installation alongside the striping, and our parking lot sign installation page covers the permit sequence in full.

Bringing an Existing Lot into Compliance

Most of our accessible work in Union County is not a new lot. It is a lot that was laid out to an older standard, or laid out correctly and then worn away, and now needs to come up to the current figures.

We start with a measured audit: total spaces, existing accessible count against the ADA table, stall and aisle widths, cross-slope in the accessible bays, route continuity to the entrance, sign presence and mounting height. That produces a list of what already complies, what can be corrected with layout and paint, and what needs civil work such as a ramp or a regraded bay. We are direct about which is which, because the second category is not something striping can solve.

Where the fix is a layout change, it usually lands with the rest of the restriping so the lot closes once rather than twice. Our parking lot restriping page covers how we phase that work around your operating hours. Where the existing markings are sound and only the accessible bays are wrong, we can do the accessible work on its own.