2022 California Standards for Accessible Design Guide (effective January 1, 2023)

SHOPPING CENTER (OR SHOPPING MALL).

[DSA-AC] One or more sales or rental establishments or stores. A shopping center may include a series of buildings on a common site, connected by a common pedestrian access route on, above or below the ground floor, that is either under common ownership or common control or developed either as one project or as a series of related projects. For the purposes of this section, “shopping center” or “shopping mall” includes a covered mall building.

Advisory Definition of SHOPPING CENTER (or SHOPPING MALL).  The California definition for SHOPPING CENTER is quite different from the federal definition. Federal ADA Regulations defines a shopping center or shopping mall as a building housing five or more sales or rental establishments. However, California accessibility provisions define a shopping center as only one or more sales or rental establishments or stores. ◼

[ADA Title III §36.401(d)(1)(ii)] Shopping center or shopping mall means –

(A) A building housing five or more sales or rental establishments; or

(B) A series of buildings on a common site, either under common ownership or common control or developed either as one project or as a series of related projects, housing five or more sales or rental establishments. For purposes of this section, places of public accommodation of the types listed in paragraph (5) of the definition of "place of public accommodation" in section 36.104 are considered sales or rental establishments. The facility housing a "shopping center or shopping mall" only includes floor levels housing at least one sales or rental establishment, or any floor level designed or intended for use by at least one sales or rental establishment.