ALPHA GAMMA DELTA PORCH ENCLOSURE

Issue: Vertical accessibility to an elevator dining area in a sorority house.

Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to a 485 square foot addition to the dining area. The alteration consists of enclosing an existing porch and adding an accessible ramp to the first floor. According to the applicant, $15,000 of the $95,000 project budget is being used to upgrade accessibility features. Current plans call for increasing the number of available beds from 37 to 56 and an elevator to provide access to all three floors will be addressed when this alteration occurs.

Project Progress:

The project is under construction,

Items to be Waived:

Vertical accessibility to the elevated dining area, 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.