HIGH REACH 2 OFFICE AND MAINTENANCE FACILITY

Issue: Use of a platform lift to provide vertical accessibility to the second floor.

Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver to permit the use of a platform lift as a means of providing vertical accessibility to the second floor of a new office/factory building. The facility will have factory/industrial shop space on the 29,765 first floor and two offices and storage on the 11,630 square foot second level. According to the applicant, the local building department will not allow a platform lift to be used for this purpose and is requiring a full passenger elevator instead.

Project Progress:

The project is in plan review.

Items to be Waived:

Requiring the use of an elevator to provide vertical accessibility, as specified in 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.