FREIGHT REVENUE RECOVERY OF MIAMI, INC.

Issue: Vertical accessibility to a second floor office area.

Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to a 1,979 square foot second level in an existing warehouse/office facility. The project was originally constructed in 1981 and is undergoing an $80,000 alteration to upgrade life safety and accessibility features since the local building department discovered the original construction had been done without a permit. The toilet room on the first floor is being made accessible; doorway widths are being widened and accessible hardware is also being installed. According to the applicant, these changes exceed 20 percent of the cost of the alteration, without considering the $19,793-26,500 cost of lift equipment. The applicant also stated that the second floor was not constructed to be able to support a lift and would be technically infeasible to install one.

Project Progress:

The project is under construction.

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.