FIFTH STREET MARINA – OFFICE LOFT RENOVATION

Issue: Vertical accessibility to the loft area of a marina warehouse undergoing an alteration.

Analysis; The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to a new, 1,600 square foot loft in an existing 5,000 square foot warehouse that has historically been used for marine industrial purposes. The owner plans to divide the building into two commercial studios and construct the new loft. There is an existing lift to convey patrons to the first floor level and quotes from $88,867 to $122,000 for elevators were provided. The overall construction cost of the project is estimated to be $202,252; however, the building official stated that the building underwent a $1,250,000 alteration during the previous three years, increasing the applicable cost for determining disproportionate cost to be $1,454,252.

Project Progress:

The project is under design.

Items to be Waived:

Vertical accessibility to the second level loft, 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.