Issue: Vertical accessibility to a second floor office.
Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to the 1,780 square foot second floor of a two building project that was originally built in 1920 as a boarding house. According to the applicant, the only feasible way to make the second floor accessible would be to construct an exterior structure 6to house the elevator. Any other method would damage the historic significance of the building., A $131,000 estimate for constructing the elevator tower was submitted. The permit valuation for the project is $129.900.
Project Progress:
The project is in plan review.
Items to be Waived:
Vertical accessibility to a second floor buildout, 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.