Visitability Ordinance

In 2003, Bolingbrook passed an ordinance to codify voluntary “visitability” criteria, which require:

• A step-free entrance leading from a parking area or public way to an entrance with a minimum 32-inch clear opening.
• One accessible bathroom on the same level as the no-step entrance.
• At least one shower in the home with reinforced beams to allow for the installation of grab rails, if necessary, at a later date.
• Exterior and interior doorways at least 32 inches wide.
• Hallways must be a minimum of 42 inches wide.
• Electrical wall outlets placed no more than 15 inches above finished flooring.
• Wall switches controlling light fixtures and fans placed 48 inches (maximum) above finished flooring.

During the exploratory phase of this policy, Village staff conducted a survey of all single-family homebuilders active in Bolingbrook to determine the approximate cost of incorporating certain “visitability” features into the construction of a new home. The initial survey estimated that additional features would increase the cost of construction by about 1.5 percent. Village staff, having observed the ordinance over a span of more than twenty years, note that in practice these features have proven to be cost-neutral or minimal when incorporated during initial design and construction.

Years after the passing of the original ordinance, when homes originally built to be compliant were being remodeled, the Village realized that the administrative language of the ordinance was not clear enough to require maintaining all aspects of visitability during a remodel. The ordinance language was updated to require that a home originally built subject to the ordinance must remain in compliance in perpetuity.

Local developers, the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago, and members of Bolingbrook’s disabled community testified at a June 1999 Plan Commission meeting. The Community Development Department held two open meetings where builders, architects, members of the disabled community and Village staff further discussed the language, resulting in a more comprehensive code. This new draft was presented to members of the Plan Commission during a workshop in August 1999. A final draft of the building code text amendment was produced later that month and presented to the Plan Commission during a September meeting.

Although approved by the Plan Commission in 1999, the building code amendments were not yet law. Therefore, the Village of Bolingbrook Executive Department encouraged builders to voluntarily comply with the visitability code in the interim, which they did for the next four years. In 2003, the mayor and Village staff began the process of making the amendments law and held another series of public meetings and “open houses” for the public to view visitable homes. Tours of the homes, combined with advocacy from The Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities as well as the developers’ record of voluntary compliance, led to the passage of the ordinance in June 2003.