HADDON HALL HOTEL AND CAMPTON APARTMENTS

Issue: Vertical accessibility to all areas of two historic hotels and a new cabana building.

Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to the first floor guest rooms of the Haddon Hall Hotel. An elevator will provide access to the hotel’s second and third floors, although it is existing and does not comply with interior size requirements. The alteration will include accessibility features with strobes, grab bars, audible/visual alarms, handrails and foot lighting. The Campton building consists of two wings which are connecte4d by a one story structure housing the lobby. The owner proposes adding accessible toilet facilities and a gymnasium on the north side of the Campton property. Both hotels are considered historic and documentation confirming their status was submitted. The overall project, including alterations to the existing buildings and the new cabana will cost $11,691,750. The property is connected by a number of changes in levels and the owner plans to install a series of ramps to unify the project and make it more accessible throughout.

Project Progress:

The project is under design and in plan review.

Items to be Waived:

Vertical accessibility throughout the project, 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.