CORRY VILLAGE – UF
Issue:
Vertical accessibility to the second floor of 10 student apartment
buildings.
Analysis:
The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical
accessibility to the second floor of a 16 unit apartment building that is undergoing
a $1,950,000 alteration as a component of an overall alteration of 10
buildings. The are 8 one bedroom and 8
two bedroom units divided equally between the two floors. When the project is completed, each building
will have a fully accessible unt on the accessible
first floor. There are no common areas
provided on the second floor, Estimates
of $137,233 and $122,517 were submitted as the cost to provide vertical accessibility
to all levels.
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.