Florida Building Commission

December 12, 2014

Legal Report

Plaza Resort

600 N. Atlantic Ave, Daytona Beach,

Florida

ACCESSIBILITY TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE (TAC)

DS2014-129 by David Kramer, Building Code Administrator of University of Florida

Question: Would a shower curtain rod with the height of 74inches (AFF) be considered a head obstruction under the 80 inch vertical clearance specification in Section 307.4 of the 2010 Florida Building Code, Accessibility for a person who is visually impaired?

Question 2: Would a toilet room, restroom be considered within the definition of Circulation Path under the “not limited” to part of the definition?

Committee Action: Deferred to allow the applicant to provide more information including cutsheets and drawings of shower stalls.

DS-2014-142 by Robert S. Fine, Esq. of Greenberg Traurig, P.A.

Question 1:  Are multifamily residential buildings/developments covered by the Rehabilitation Act and/or the ADA required by the 2012-FAC to provide elevators when the building/developments would otherwise not be required to provide them by the Rehabilitation Act and/or ADA, as applicable to the particular project?

Answer: The answer is No.   Section 553.509, Florida Statutes, exempts “[f]acilities, sites, and spaces exempted by s. 203 of the Standards,” from “the duty to provide vertical accessibility to all levels above and below the occupiable grade level, regardless of whether the standards [sic] require an elevator to be installed in such building, structure, or facility…” § 553.509(1)(g), F.S. This exemption is restated in Section 201.1.1 of the 2012-FAC. Section 203.8 of the Standards provides that dwelling units that are not required to provide the enhanced accessibility features required by the Rehabilitation Act or the ADA (i.e., Sections 809.2 through 809.4) are not required to be on an accessible route including a route that provides vertical accessibility. Therefore, in a multifamily residential building/development where all of the units that are required to have the enhanced accessibility features of Sections 809.2 through 809.4 (by HUD or DOJ regulations) are provided on the ground floor, the remaining floors above and below the ground floor are not required to be on an accessible route that provides vertical accessibility.

SPECIAL OCCUPANCY AND MECHANICAL TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEES (TAC)

In separate meetings, the Special Occupancy TAC and the Mechanical TAC took up the request for declaratory statement, which resulted in the same recommendation.

DS 2014-135 by Michael Ippolito, P.E.

Petition has no particular facts and circumstances and calls for a statement of general applicability, therefore this petition was denied.