Issue: Vertical accessibility to a second floor tenant space.
Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to the second floor tenant space in a hotel undergoing a $43,500 alteration. The space is accessed by an exterior concrete stair and is constrained by property lines on two sides, the driving aisle for the parking garage and an electrical equipment room on the fourth side. There is insufficient room to install a lift in the existing stairwell and a $55,000 estimate for an elevator was submitted. The first floor space is being modified as well and although they are two separate occupancies, accessible toilet rooms have been designed for each.
Project Progress:
The project is in plan review.
Items to be Waived:
Vertical accessibility to the second floor, 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.