RENOVATIONS TO 904 MARGARET STREET

Issue: Vertical accessibility to the second floor of a building being converted from residential to office use.

Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to the second floor of an office building that is being converted from residential to office use. The structure has 1,443 square feet on the first floor and 1,390 on the second. There is a common reception area, conference room and employee break room on the first floor. According to the applicant, the site and first floor will be fully accessible included the entrance, accessible route al all altered areas, unisex toilet room and accessible drinking fountain. The site includes accessible parking, accessible signage and ramp. The building was constructed c. 1916 and documentation is included from the local Historic Preservation Office that installation of an elevator would damage the historic significance of the building.

Project Progress:

The project is under design.

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.