• Apartments with parking lots need accessible parking.apartment for rent image by dead_account from Fotolia.com
  
  Handicap parking laws are enforced for the benefit of people with disabilities, especially those that affect mobility. Handicap parking spaces are wider than typical spaces, allowing for an "access aisle" for the user's wheelchair or mobility device. The level-ground spaces are situated as near as possible to buildings such as apartment complexes, and particularly near accessible entrances. According to the Illinois Office of the Attorney General, the state is "dedicated to tearing down barriers to accessibility for people with disabilities and replacing them with compassion and common sense."
  
  

Environmental Barriers Act (EBA)

• The Illinois Environmental Barriers Act ensures that all public buildings in the state of Illinois are designed, constructed or changed so that they are readily accessible and usable by an environmentally limited person. The EBA includes buildings with parking facilities for occupants and their guests. Housing units four or more stories high with 10 or more dwelling units must comply with the EBA. Dwellings with four units or fewer need no accommodations. The Illinois Accessibility Code (IAC) enforces the EBA through the issuance of building permits for any new construction or alterations to buildings, including parking lots.
  
  

Number of Spaces

• The number of accessible parking spaces required for an apartment complex in Illinois depends upon the number of units. Buildings with 25 or fewer units need only one space. The numbers increase by one for every 25 additional units. Five hundred to 1,000 units require 2 percent of the total number of parking spaces provided. Buildings with 1,000 or more units require at least 20 with one for every 100 additional units.
  
  

Signage

• The Illinois Accessibility Code ensures the design and marking of accessible parking spaces meet the requirements of the EBA. Each accessible parking space must contain a sign mounted in the center of the 16-foot wide space on a post no more than 5 feet from the front of the parking space. The sign must include information on the amount of the fine. The state fine is $250, but municipalities may impose larger fines up to $350. Citing violators and collecting fines is done through local ordinances.
  
  

Alternative Parking

• Neither Illinois law nor the Americans with Disabilities Acts requires a city or village to offer accessible street parking to residents of an apartment complex. The city of Chicago, however, has an ordinance that offers disabled city residents' accessible street parking in front of one-storied, private residents Peoria allows accessible, convenient parking where congestion occurs. Some cities and villages have ordinances allowing disabled residents to apply for residential disabled parking signs on city streets. In some municipalities, individuals with disabilities may be allowed to use the reserved, accessible parking spaces available at nearby apartment parking lots.