Baltimore May Require Religious Accommodation By Condo Boards

Last month, Baltimore City Council member Rochelle "Rikki" Spector proposed legislation to prohibit rules in multifamily dwellings that "deny reasonable accommodation" to practice one's religion. Today's Baltimore Sun reports that in one Baltimore condominium, residents are battling over whether the building will accommodate Orthodox Jews by having a "Sabbath elevator". In February, the condo board voted 5-3 to strike from the contract to renovate the building's two elevators a clause that would have programmed one of them to stop automatically on every floor on Saturdays. Orthodox Jews are able to use elevators that are pre-programmed in this way on their Sabbath without violating Jewish religious law. Spector's bill had used Sabbath elevators as a specific example of accommodation, but after meeting with the Strathmore Tower condominium board, she said she would remove the example from the proposed law. Another condominium in Baltimore has struggled over whether to permit Orthodox Jews to use a security door on Saturdays to shorten their walk to synagogue. In the 2005, the Imperial Condominium board voted for security reasons to deny access to the security door, changing a 20 foot walk into one of several blocks.