OCEAN BREEZE HOTEL

Issue: Vertical accessibility to the second floor of a hotel.

Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to the second floor of Building B of a two building hotel undergoing a $1,375,000 alteration. Building A has a chair lift for guests to access the first floor of the hotel and an elevator for the second and third stories. Building B has 48 units, of which, six are accessible at the first floor level. Estimates of $92,078, $110,190 and $113,790 were submitted as the cost of installing an elevator to serve the second floor. Although the estimates do not meet the threshold for disproportionate cost, the applicant contends that having more than the required number of accessible rooms renders additional accessibility to the second floor unnecessary.

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.