Developer to Modify Units to Aid Disabled
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One of the nation’s largest residential apartment developers agreed yesterday to survey and, if needed, retrofit thousands of apartments in 71 buildings across the country to settle charges that its properties are not accessible to the physically handicapped. Plaintiffs said the settlement, reached in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, is the most far-reaching to date in any case alleging that construction defects violate the rights of the disabled. They said 12,000 apartments would have to be surveyed, and they predicted the cost of the modifications would exceed $20 million. The company, Archstone-Smith, said it had not determined the cost of that work. The company said in a statement that it would try to recover a substantial portion of that expense from architects, engineers and builders it relied on for assurances that building design and construction complied with legal requirements. Archstone-Smith also agreed to pay $1.4 million to the three disability organizations that filed the lawsuit in December: the Equal Rights Center, the American Association of People With Disabilities and the United Spinal Association. The company, incorporated in Maryland but headquartered in Colorado, is the nation’s seventh-largest apartment owner, with more than 79,000 units in 231 complexes across the country. More : washingtonpost.com |