In response to a lawsuit brought by the German Village Society and a group of property owners, the City of Columbus has put forward legislation that would allow it to resume work installing sidewalk ramps in the neighborhood.
The first reading of that legislation took place at City Council on Monday, with a final vote scheduled for December 15. Councilmember Lourdes Barroso de Padilla also hosted a public hearing last week about the issue, which lasted almost three hours and featured several presentations from city officials as well as lots of public testimony.
Speakers at the hearing included representatives of the German Village Society and the German Village Commission, residents of the neighborhood, and disability rights advocates. The lawsuit argued that the city was not following its own rules by doing the curb ramp work without first getting a certificate of appropriateness approved by either the city’s historic preservation office or the German Village Commission. Judge Kimberly Cocroft sided with the German Village Society and issued a preliminary injunction, stopping the work…