Issue: Vertical accessibility to all rows of a stadium-type movie theater.
Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to all rows of a new 14-screen stadium seating style movie complex. Section 221 of the code provides an exception for this issue, provided all provision of 221 and 802 are met. This includes not only vertical accessibility but vertical dispersion of seating locations as well., Each of the theaters has been designed to include the required number of wheelchair and companion seats and when the seats are located in a common area, e.g. top or back row, sight lines are consistent as well. The applicant provided an estimate of $2,369.458 for making all 91 rows of seats accessible in addition to the $5,655,000 original building estimate.
Project Progress:
The project is under design.
Items to be Waived:
Vertical accessibility to all rows of seats, ass 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.