OFF THE WALL TRAMPOLINE FUN CENTER

Issue: Vertical accessibility to the trampoline and lazer tag areas of a family entertainment facility.

Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to the elevated trampoline area in an entertainment facility undergoing a $27,192 alteration. According to the equipment manufacturer, the trampolines are not designed for the use of persons with disabilities. According to the applicant, patrons may observe people in the jump area from the accessible, ground level seating area. The lazer tag section of the project is existing and is not undergoing an alteration. The applicant further contends that allowing people having less than full physical control would constitute a hardship, resulting in potential liability.

Items to be Waived:

Vertical accessibility to the trampoline equipment, 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 553.517, Florida Statutes, provides criteria for granting waivers and allows consideration of unnecessary or extreme hardship to the applicant if the specific requirements were imposed.