Issue: Vertical accessibility to office space on the second floor.
Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to 1,700 square feet of office space on the second floor. The building is a combination manufacturing, warehouse, mercantile and administrative space. According to the applicant there will only be four offices located on the second floor, which are duplicated on the accessible first floor level. The project will cost $1,100,000. No estimates for the cost to make the second level accessible were received because the applicant contends the second floor is exempt based on the exception in Section 201.1.1, F.A.C. Note: There are two areas on the plans labeled “non-air conditioned incidental space, not for storage or occupancy”, but there is no other explanation of how the space will be used.
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.