Issue: Vertical accessibility to all levels of a historic hotel.
Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to all levels of a historic hotel property. The property consists of 3 historic structures: the Park Central Hotel, the Heathcote and the Imperial. They are being developed into one hotel complex. The Heathcote is 3 stories (7,680 square feet); the Park Central is 7 stories (37,118 square feet); and the Imperial is 3 stories (16,044 square feet). The owner is requesting a waiver for vertical accessibility to the upper portion of the restaurant on the ground floor of the Park Central and for all other levels above the ground floor. According to the applicant, it is not possible to add a lift or elevator to access these areas without adversely impacting the historic character of the building. There is no elevator in the Heathcote, while elevators in the Park Central and Imperial do not meet the interior dimensions of the current code. The applicant provided documentation substantiating the historic nature of the project.
Project Progress:
The project is in plan review.
Items to be Waived:
Vertical accessibility to all levels, 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.