336 Collins

 

Issue:  Vertical accessibility to all levels and mobility features of a historic hotel.

 

Analysis:  The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility for the first and second floor guest rooms. The applicant is also requesting a waiver for the Florida specific hotel/motel room requirements for mobility features for only one room and not the two required.  The property is undergoing a $800,000 alteration of the 1060 square feet hotel with 35 rooms. This structure is a qualified historic building. The first floor, which contains guest rooms, is located several risers above the accessible lobby level with a second set of stairs going to the second floor guest rooms. The lobby is historic and is the only feasible location where a device for vertical accessibility could be located.

 

Project Progress:

 

The project is in under design.

 

Items to be Waived:

 

Vertical accessibility to all levels, as required by Section 553.509, F. S.

 

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.

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