Issue: Vertical accessibility to the second floor of a historic office building.
Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to the second floor of a historic building undergoing a $50,000 alteration to be used as a professional accounting office. The structure has 2,090 square feet and is located in the Downtown Historic District of Vero Beach. According to the applicant, the building, as constructed, will not accommodate the addition of a lift without extensive modifications which would exceed the threshold for disproportionate cost. Bids of $20,700 for a lift and $65,222 were submitted.
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.