EDEN ROC HOTEL

Issue: Vertical accessibility and accessible route to the spa area of a resort.

Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to the elevated spa plunge pools in an 18,000 square foot space facility undergoing a $1.5 million alteration. Because of Health Department regulations and the existing structural constraints, the whirlpool must be elevated four feet above the adjacent floor area. The applicant proposes to install a lift to achieve access to the facility.

Project Progress:

The project is under construction.

Items to be Waived:

Vertical accessibility to the whirlpool, 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.