PESTANA HOTEL AND RESORTS

Issue: Vertical accessibility to all floors of a hotel composed of three separate buildings.

Analysis: The applicant previously requested a six month extension of the Final Order previously issued on January 14, 2010 and the request was granted. The current application requests a further six month extension for that Order. The applicant does not anticipate that construction will have commenced prior to that date, rendering the existing Final Order null and void. The applicant agrees to all conditions previously attached to the current Final Order.

The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to all levels in three separate buildings being renovated to result in a single hotel project. According to the applicant, it is not only structurally impracticable to make each floor accessible, but it would also negatively impact the historic significance of the structures. In the South Building, the request is for a waiver from access to the elevated first floor rooms and to permit the existing elevator to remain without increasing the cab size. The middle building’s request is for a waiver from vertical accessibility to the second floor. In the north building, the request is for a waiver from vertical accessibility to the raised first floor and to the second and third floors. There is a total of 99 rooms in the project, four of which will be accessible and one will have a roll in shower. The total cost of the project is estimated at $3,000,000

Project Progress:

The project is under design.

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.