Issue: Vertical accessibility between levels of an office building.
Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing internal vertical accessibility between the first floor administrative area and half basement below. Because of the site, exterior access is available at both levels of the building. The current project is being done to build out the basement section for additional office space. It is presently being used for storage. An accessible toilet room will also be provided at the basement level. The project will cost $80,000 and $4,975 mechanical upgrades were done during the previous three years. Estimates of $42,600 for a chair lift and $112,500 for an elevator were submitted to substantiate disproportionate cost.
Project Progress:
The project is in plan review.
Items to be Waived:
Vertical accessibility between 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.