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Report: Beacon Hill commission rejects sidewalk changes for disabled – Metro US

Report: Beacon Hill commission rejects sidewalk changes for disabled

Beacon Hill is on high alert after another sexual assault on Wednesday evening. (PHOTO VIA ISTOCK) A Beacon Hill commission rejected a city plan to bring the neighborhood’s sidewalks into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. (PHOTO VIA ISTOCK)

A Beacon Hill commission rejected a plan by the city to change the neighborhood’s sidewalk ramps to bring them into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act in part because of the way it would look.

The Beacon Hill Architectural Commission in December rejected the city’s proposal to install 259 pedestrian ramps with tactile warning strips, according to the Globe. If it’s not approved by the end of next month, the city will lose more than $500,000 in federal grants.

Those who oppose the city’s effort said they would rather have granite ramps, rather than concrete and also granite tactile strips rather than the yellow or terra cotta-colored ones used elsewhere in the city.

“If you look up the hill with them, all you would see were yellow intersections,” Steve Young, chairman of the board of the Beacon Hill Civic Association told the Globe. “That doesn’t meet the historic requirements.”

Mayor Marty Walsh said the rejection was “disappointing.”

Follow Michael Naughton on Twitter @metrobosmike.