GIBSON PARK NEW CONSTRUCTION

Issue: Vertical accessibility to all rows of a bleacher system.

Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to all rows of a new bleacher system containing 993 seats. Accessible wheelchair and companion seating are provided on the top and bottom rows. The overall project will cost $9,645,278 and consists of baseball/football fields, a playground, pavilion, tot pool, competition pool, vita course, walkways, existing bleacher and a new bleacher system with a press box accessible via LULA. The project was permitted in March, 2012 using the 2007 edition of the code. The owner could have used the 2010 version, which would not have required a waiver, but the design had been developed using the previous standards, so a waiver is needed.

Project Progress:

The project is completed.

Items to be Waived:

Vertical accessibility to all rows of bleacher seating, as required by Section 553.509, Florida Statutes.

553.509: Vertical accessibility - Nothing in sections 553.501-553.513 or the guidelines shall be construed to relieve the owner of any building, structure or facility governed by those sections from the duty to provide vertical accessibility to all levels above and below the occupiable grade level, regardless of whether the guidelines require an elevator to be installed in such building, structure or facility, except for:

(1) Elevator pits, elevator penthouses, mechanical rooms, piping or equipment catwalks and automobile lubrication and maintenance pits and platforms;

(2) Unoccupiable spaces, such as rooms, enclosed spaces and storage spaces that are not designed for human occupancy, for public accommodations or for work areas; and

(3) Occupiable spaces and rooms that are not open to the public and that house no more than five persons, including, but not limited to equipment control rooms and projection booths.

Waiver Criteria: There is no specific guidance for a waiver of this requirement in the code. The Commission’s current rule, authorized in Section 553.512, Florida Statutes, provides criteria for granting waivers and allows consideration of unnecessary or extreme hardship to the applicant if the specific requirements were imposed.