Spruce
Creek High School Stadium Expansion
Issue:
Vertical accessibility to
the Press Box
Analysis:
The applicant is
requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to the Press Box
behind the existing metal bleachers with an estimated cost of $500,000 for
additional seating at the football field and other requirements. Access to the
Press Box will be gained from the aisle stairs of the bleachers. The Press Box
will not be used for public seating.
Project
Progress:
This project is under design.
Items
to be waived:
Vertical accessibility to the Press Box,
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.