There is a battle brewing between disabled people who utilize exclusive van-only handicapped parking spaces and those who are prohibited from parking in those spots even though they drive cars with handicapped parking permits.
Assembly Bill 24, which is scheduled to come before the Legislature's Assembly Transportation Committee 1:30 p.m. Thursday, seeks to take away the exclusivity that lawmakers granted to side-loading, wheelchair-lift vans in 1999 and allow all handicapped vehicles to park in those spaces.
The hearing will be simulcast to the Sawyer State Building.
"We have a conflict going on in the disabled community," said Jack Mayes, executive director of the Disability and Advocacy Law Center in Reno, a non-profit watchdog organization for the rights of the disabled.
"A number of disabled motorists have been complaining about getting tickets for parking their cars in spaces that have been designated for exclusive use by vans with side-loading lifts."
Ed Gobel, a longtime Las Vegas veterans rights and disabled rights activist who recently lost a bid for the Assembly, said the proposed bill discriminates against him and others who need the exclusive use of van-only spaces because they provide additional room to raise and drop side-loading wheelchair lifts.
"If there are no van-only spaces available, we cannot park (in other disabled spots)," Gobel said, noting he has been ticketed for parking his van over two non-handicapped spaces for accessibility when no van-only spaces were open.
Gobel said if he parks in a regular handicapped spot next to an empty regular handicapped space and another handicapped-tagged vehicle parks next to him on the side where his lift is, "I cannot get back in to my van until the driver of the other vehicle comes back to his car."
AB24 proposes, among other things, to remove the language requiring the posting of signs that use a "combination of words to state that the space is for the exclusive use of a vehicle with a side-loading wheelchair lift."
In 1999 Gobel was a driving force in getting the exclusivity language written into Nevada's statutes for both handicapped parking and for vans with special license plates issued to disabled veterans -- language that would be erased with passage of AB 24.
Gobel, a Vietnam veteran and president of the Council of Nevada Veterans Organizations, said many side-loading van users are disabled veterans who lost limbs or use of limbs during combat. He argues the sacrifices they made in the defense of their nation should be considered before overturning this law.
However, federal law, bolstered by the ADA, does not mandate exclusive parking spaces for vans, side-loading or otherwise, said Mayes, who also is disabled.
George Brown, who is 97 percent blind, is the driving force behind AB24 which is not yet sponsored by any legislators. George and his wife, Lois, who requires the use of a wheelchair, argue that the exclusivity clause violates ADA law because it discriminates against the majority of disabled people.
"So many times you see a row of empty van-only spaces while all of the other handicapped spaces are full," said Brown, a Las Vegas resident of 25 years and former chairman of the Nevada Developmental Disabilities Planning Council.
"I can appreciate the other side's position on this, but handicapped parking has always been first-come, first-served and such spaces should be available to all vehicles with handicapped permits."
About a year ago, the Browns were ticketed for parking in a van-only spot at Palace Station when no other handicapped space was available. It triggered George Brown's crusade against the exclusivity clause for vans. A judge eventually dismissed the ticket because the Browns are clearly disabled.
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