Question: Auwe to the driver of a plumbing business van who honked at me as I pulled into a parking lot for restaurants and businesses on South King Street. You were sitting parked alongside the street meter and not near the parking lot entrance with no blinkers showing any indication that you were going into the parking lot. There was a Mini Cooper backing up from the handicapped stall, which I had no intention of taking and which you pulled into. I did not see any handicap placard on your business van. My question to Kokua Line: Can a business vehicle without a placard legally park in a disability parking space?

Answer: “Absolutely not,” said Kirby Shaw, executive directive of Hawaii’s Disability and Communication Access Board.

“Under Hawaii Revised Statutes §291-57, a vehicle must display a valid disability parking permit (placard or special license plate) when occupying a reserved accessible parking space. Failure to do so is subject to a citation and fine of up to $500. This applies to business and personal vehicles,” added Bryan Mick, DCAB’s coordinator for program and policy development.

Per HRS-291-51, “parking space reserved for persons with disabilities” means “a public or private parking space, including the access aisle, designated for the use of a person with a disability that is designed and constructed in compliance with the requirements of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended, and related rules and guidelines, and is marked with a sign designating the parking space as reserved for persons with disabilities.”

If the space doesn’t meet those standards, it won’t count as an official disability parking space, and anyone can park there, which appears to be the case in the parking lot you mentioned. A Google Images search of the address shows a parking space adjacent to the building that is marked with a stencil of a wheelchair on the pavement (which is not required by law), but it lacks the required access aisle and vertical signage. So, while the spot follows the spirit of the law by providing parking close to the building entrance, it doesn’t meet the letter of the law and the plumbing van driver wasn’t risking a ticket.

Other laws do require places of public accommodation, such as businesses, schools and government agencies, to provide legally compliant accessible parking, and that would include the parking lot on King Street. DCAB has resources online at health.hawaii.gov/dcab to help parking lot owners properly design and build disability parking spaces, and it also has an online form (808ne.ws/psreport) that people can use to report apparent violations.

“If we get a submission that has enough information or photos to determine the parking lot is likely in noncompliance, we will try and reach out to the property owner,” said Mick, regarding the lot you visited.

“The property lot owner would have the primary responsibility for making sure that the lot complies with the American with Disabilities Accessibility Guidelines and state law. The Department of Justice has jurisdiction over ADAAG. DCAB will try and provide the property owner with some technical guidance on what their obligations are, but we are not an enforcement agency,” he said, noting that DCAB supports state legislation that would allow counties to authorize county building or planning agencies and/or inspectors to investigate and enforce these types of infractions in a timely manner, during the regular course of their work.

Although a bill seeking such authorization failed at the Legislature this year, DCAB intends to try again next session, Shaw said.

Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.