Long Beach will be required to spend roughly $200 million over three decades to bring its curbs and sidewalks into compliance with Americans With Disability Act mandates, attorneys announced this week.

The announcement follows a U.S. Central District Court judge’s Monday approval of a settlement between Long Beach’s city government and disability-rights attorneys representing five plaintiffs who alleged in a 2014 lawsuit that a lack of curb ramps and other infrastructure deficiencies amounted to discrimination against people who need wheelchairs or other assistance to get around town.

The settlement, pending the City Council’s approval, requires Long Beach officials to accomplish infrastructure upgrades throughout the entire city.

“Within five years, there will be a curb ramp at every location where a pedestrian crossing requires a curb,” said Andrew Lee, a partner at the Oakland law firm of Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho and one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

Long Beach Public Works Director Craig Beck said city government has already hired a consultant to survey what exactly will need to be done to fulfill what he said both sides of the case now consider to be a valuable agreement.

Repair demands

The Disability Rights Legal Center, which has offices in Los Angeles, and Disability Rights Advocates, which has offices in Berkeley and New York City, also represented the five plaintiffs who sued over Long Beach’s curbs and sidewalks.

The deal:

• Within five years, Long Beach officials must have all legally mandated curb ramps in place. This will require construction of some 4,500 new curb ramps.

• Between years six and 20 of the settlement deal, Long Beach officials must spend up to $50 million to repair some 16,000 curb ramps that are damaged or otherwise inaccessible to disabled individuals.

• Before 30 years are out, city government must spend up to $125 million to remedy broken sidewalks and crosswalks.

• City government must also set aside more than $5 million during the first 10 years of the settlement period to make specific infrastructure fixes that disabled residents will be able to request.

Beck said City Hall already has the means to process such requests through its “rapid response program.”

Prior to the settlement, Public Works primarily dealt with access issues by responding to resident complaints, Beck said. Since 2015, however, Public Works has adopted a “complete streets” policy that requires workers to fix the likes of damaged gutters or curb ramps when they’re also handling a job on the adjacent street.

Scheduling repairs

The settlement gives city government up to two years to finish its survey of needed repairs. Once that is complete, Long Beach officials will be required to hold at least two public hearings and meet again with the plaintiffs and their attorneys to plan out how the work may be completed.

Long Beach’s infrastructure needs were at the forefront of city politics last year. Voters approved Measure A, a 10-year sales tax increase, in June. Measure A increases Long Beach’s sales tax rate by one percentage point during its first six years and is projected to result in some $384 million in tax revenue being directed to City Hall over its lifetime.

Mayor Robert Garcia promised during the Measure A campaign that much of taxpayers’ money would be spent on the likes of street and sidewalk repairs, although money has also been dedicating to restoring police and fire services.

City government has outlined how the first $150 million of Measure A revenues may be spent. Those plans include spending some $90 million on street repairs, as well as about $15 million to be dedicated for sidewalk fixes.

“There will be Measure A dollars that go into this, but the settlement won’t be dependent on Measure A,” Beck said.

News of the Long Beach settlement comes about two years after Los Angeles agreed to a similar deal. L.A. officials agreed to spend more than $1 billion over three decades to fix that city’s sidewalks.

Lee’s law firm and the Disability Rights Legal Center also worked on the Los Angeles case.